Fig. 208.—Fusus antiquus.
Lagore, otherwise Dunshaughlin. (See ante, pp. [23-5], [157], for the discovery and historical account of this celebrated crannog.)—In the kitchen midden were bones of the Bos longifrons, Bos frontosus, four-horned goat, wolf, dog, bear,[224] red deer, wild boar, sheep, fox, horse, &c.; also a sea-shell (Fusus antiquus), here figured one-third its real size. This relic is preserved in the Petrie Collection, R. I. A. It is curious to find a shell of any marine species within the bounds of a crannog situated many miles inland; and with it were shells of limpets and baccinums, together with numerous portions of fictile ware.[225] Around the crannog were several single-tree canoes, and near the centre there were two human skeletons lying at full length; the country people would not allow them to be removed; one specimen was, however, secured, and deposited in the Museum, R. I. A.[226]
Bohermeen.—Ante, pp. [82] and [171].
COUNTY WESTMEATH.
During the working of the Commission for the Arterial Drainage of Ireland a crannog was discovered in this county, but its site is unidentified.
Joristown.—In this townland, parish of Killucan, there would seem to have been formerly a crannog in the river Deel, for when deepening the bed of the stream a bronze spear-head was found five feet below the surface, and in the immediate neighbourhood of an artificial island, which is described upon the label attached to this weapon in the R. I. A. as “a little mound, formerly an island, which contained a quantity of bones and some iron spears.”[227]
Ballinderry, in the parish of Kilcumreragh, barony of Clonlonan, is situated not far from Moate. When, as the result of drainage, the water of this lake fell, it was discovered that it had formerly contained a large crannog surrounded by a stockade of oak piles, around and on which was an immense quantity of the antlers of red deer, and fractured bones of deer, oxen, sheep, and other mammalia, all afterwards sold as manure. Many objects of archæological interest found here were obtained by various collectors—some are in the Museum, R. I. A., and others have been figured in the Journal of the Royal Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland. The first notice of the crannog occurred in 1844, when Mr. Hayes forwarded to Sir W. Wilde a description of it, together with a plan and map of the locality. Two single-piece canoes were disinterred from this site, and portion of an ancient harp of wood. The pendent amulet of stone, figured p. [115], was found here.[228]