During the working of the Commission for the Arterial Drainage of Ireland, a crannog was discovered in this county, locality not mentioned.[230] “Just above the Pass Bridge, at the east end of Droughtville demesne, is a marsh, called the ‘Muddy Lake’ on the Ordnance Map, but by the people, the ‘Island Lough.’ On the north side of this marsh there is a small island, on which are the remains of Kiltubrid Castle. Between the castle and mainland, on the north side, there is an ancient causeway about one hundred yards in length.” A new channel made by the Drainage Commissioners in 1852, crossed this causeway within thirty yards of the castle. In the excavation several large pieces of oak were found, having evidently formed portion of a framework, as the mortises were tolerably perfect. Here also were discovered an article formed of wood, a pan of white bronze or findruin, three coins of the reign of Charles I., two of Elizabeth, and numerous others worn and defaced.[231]
QUEEN’S COUNTY.
Grantstown.—About the year 1860, the permanent water-level of this lake being lowered six feet, disclosed an artificial island; the stakes forming the enclosure were very sharply pointed; those laid horizontally in the centre were grooved and nailed together. R. Langrishe—who had visited Grantstown, and was often on the lake—states that the country people spoke of these remains as “the castle”: they said “it had sunk.” No canoe was found, the water in the immediate vicinity of the crannog being upwards of eighty feet in depth. The only relics discovered were an iron hasp, two nails with large heads, an arrow or spear of charred wood, a polished piece of bone resembling a pin for the hair, having grooved circles all round it at top, an enormous quantity of animal bones and charred timber, a lump of gypsum, also a rude box, about four and a-half feet in length, which contained two small bones.[232]
Lough Annagh, situated in the barony of Tinnehinch, separates the King’s from the Queen’s County; it is three miles in circumference, and the waters abound with pike, roach, and perch. In the middle of this lake, where most shallow, oak framing was visible, and a tradition existed that “in the war of 1641 a party of insurgents had a wooden house erected on this platform, whence they went out at night in a boat and plundered the surrounding country.” The site was suitable for such a retreat, the lake having formerly been embowered in forest. Queen Elizabeth thanked one of her commanders for conducting a detachment of horse in safety through the surrounding woods of the district. T. Stanley, who visited the place in 1868, observed an island-like patch rising a little above the water-level; of piles then visible he counted upwards of one hundred and twenty, arranged in lines, with spaces of two feet between the alignments, the average diameter being about five inches. The island sloped down gradually in every direction, and the piles—apparent only on one side—accommodated themselves to the slope, and were in general only a few inches above the surface of the water. Four piles had been uprooted, and thus showed that originally they were pointed with a sharp instrument, possibly with small iron hatchets similar to those found on the spot a few days previous to T. Stanley’s visit. Between the island and the shore there was a half-submerged space, about thirty feet in diameter, strewn with stones and broken querns; a few piles appeared among this debris. There was a lesser tract closely adjoining, where well-burnt brick, both whole and broken, were mingled with the stones. On the mainland, near the crannog were traces of a curious bog-pass, made like an American corduroy road, and there can be little doubt of this being “the tougher of Malahone,” mentioned by Major Edward Wood in his despatch, giving an account of an action fought by him on the 4th May, 1691,[233] when he defeated a portion of the Irish army on a hill above the lough. It is more than probable that the crannogs in question had either been the head-quarters of the Irish force, or that after their defeat the fugitives took refuge on the islands, for in the year 1868, the Rev. J. Graves saw at Tullamore articles purchased from the men who had picked them up near the crannog. The items first named seem to tell their own story.[234]
Fig. 209.—Part of Lough Annagh, enlarged from the Ordnance Survey six-inch Map, showing Sites of Crannogs.
During the progress of drainage operations, five canoes became exposed to view; they lay at the bottom in the same part of the lake, with their bow in a north-westerly direction, all having the same inclination or dip in the sandy or muddy deposit. A drawing was made, with measured plans and sections of the most perfect of the “dug-outs”; it was, however, split or fissured from starboard right through to the stern; it measured twenty-two feet seven inches over all, its greatest beam being thirty-one inches. It was formed out of one large trunk of oak, and appeared to have been hollowed by means of fire; close inspection showed that edged tools had been used in finishing it. The bottom (two inches thick) was perfectly flat, and without keel, and its perfectly smooth sides inclined outwards from the bottom. Two stout ridges of solid timber, one near either end of the “dug-out,” served to prevent the sides from collapsing, and between them and the bow and stern cavities had been hollowed out of the solid trunk, seemingly for the purpose of rendering the craft more buoyant. The port side was several inches lower than the starboard—manifestly the effect of accident. There were no traces of thwarts or benches; the sides had neither row-locks nor thole-pins; the canoe must therefore have been intended for propulsion by paddles. A horizontal hole, about one and a-half inch in diameter, had been bored in the most forward and highest part of the stern.