Six small excavations made near the centre of the island, where the surface of the crannog was three feet above the water-level, disclosed the following section:—
| ft. | in. | ||
| Bog, with a few bones, sticks, and stones, | 3 | 6 | |
| A bed of regularly laid fern-stalks and leaves (Pteris aquilina, or brake fern), on a flooring of wicker-work, made of hazel rods, about an inch in diameter; over the ferns were a few bones and a quantity of nutshells, | 0 | 6 | |
| Bog-stuff, mixed with branches, and containing a few stones and logs of timber, | (over) | 5 | 0 |
About a foot below the water-level were traces of what G. H. Kinahan considered to be a basket-flooring; and a large flag-stone, used as a hearth, was found resting on an accumulation of wood-ashes, three feet in depth. Some distance to the west was a long rude bench (or perhaps the foundation of a wall) formed of stones. The height of the water prevented excavations outside the crannog, therefore few bones were met with, but a little east of the fireplace was the probable site of the kitchen midden.[245]
Loughrea is situated in the barony of same name. In the locality there lingered a tradition that a city lay buried under this lake, and indeed on a clear calm day—where the waters are shallow—there may be observed various heaps of stones, placed with a degree of regularity that renders it probable they may be remains of ancient lake dwellings. Upon examination it was ascertained that four of the islands in the lough were undoubted crannogs, and it was quite possible that another (known as Blake Island) might prove to be also of artificial formation.
Fig. 219.—Plan and Section of Reed Island. Scale, 20 feet to 1 inch.
Reed Island, situated at the N.W. corner of the lake, about fifty yards from the shore, lies too low to be observable in any picture. Excavations showed (section, [fig. 219])—(6) marl; (5) peat; (4) large stones; (3) a layer of birch trunks and branches; (2 and 1) two layers of squared oak beams, laid at right angles to each other. The island was surrounded with a circle of piles ([fig. 219])—two feet apart—that were seemingly strengthened against wave action by a layer of flat stones, deposited with great regularity; three sets of piles crossed the crannog, which rose about six inches above the ordinary level of the lake, and the lowest beams (1 in section) were four feet two inches beneath the then water surface. The island originally consisted of a wooden platform, enclosed by “a circular wall, the framework of which was the piles, the interstices being filled with sods. As the lake rose, it was found necessary to raise the floor, first by a mass of birch timbers and branches, and afterwards by a layer of stones.”[246]
