The annexed plan of one of the islands conveys a good idea of the general arrangement of this class of structure. The outer line of stakes enclosed a circle sixty feet in diameter, and within the enclosure there were groups of stakes—in some parts two or three deep—driven into the ground, seemingly for purposes connected with some internal arrangement. [A], the central oblong portion, consists of a platform of round logs cut in lengths of from four to six feet, possibly the floor of the hut; [B], a collection of stones with marks of fire on them; [C], a heap of stiff clay; [D], the root of a large tree nearly buried in the peat, the surface of the wood bevelled off, so as to form a sort of table, under which was found a considerable quantity of bones, apparently those of deer and swine.
Fig. 235.—Section of second Crannog in Drumaleague Lake.
[Fig. 235] is a section of the second crannog, which was surrounded by a tolerably regular circular enclosure formed of a single row of oak stakes [F, F]; it was seventy-two feet in diameter. The upper stratum [B], consisted of horizontal logs of alder, reposing upon a black peaty surface; the logs were from three to eight inches in diameter, completely water soaked and rotten: this stratum of timber was three feet six inches deep. [A], a heap of stones with marks of fire on them. Other hearths were found in different parts of the island. [C], the lower stratum of decayed and blackened sticks and branches of all descriptions lying in every direction: this layer extended as far as it was pierced in the examination, viz., about four feet, but was evidently of greater depth. [D, D], two heaps of stones found in the lower stratum. [E], the kitchen midden, in which was a large quantity of bones of deer, swine, oxen, &c., that lay four feet below the surface. There was here found also the thin topstone of a quern, formed of micaceous quartzite, smooth upon the grinding surface, but otherwise rude and unfinished: the hole for the handle passes quite through; the grain-hole, two and a-half inches in diameter, is not directly in the centre.[260]
Lough Scur.—This crannog is alluded to in the Annals of Loch Cé, under the following dates:—1345, four sons of Cathal Mac-in-caich Mac Raghnaill were taken prisoners on Loch-an-Scuir, and put to death; 1390, O’Rorke, who had been in confinement, escaped to the castle of Loch-an-Scuir, but was overtaken and slain “when coming out of his cott”; 1580, Loch-an-Scuir was taken, and Maelsechlainn Mac Raghnaill slain. On this site was found the largest quern in the Museum, R.I.A., the nether-stone being twenty and three-quarter inches long by three and three-quarter inches thick; the aperture for the pivot one and three-quarter inches deep, the same across; it is surrounded by a raised lip to retain in position the upper stone, which is nineteen and a-half inches in diameter by two and three-quarter inches in thickness: the grain aperture is three and a-half inches wide; upon the upper surface is the mark of the cross-bar of the pivot, its upper surface left in a rude state; it has one handle-hole. The stone mould, figured ante, p. [72], was found here, and a model of a portion of the oak framework of the crannog—one-quarter real size—was deposited in the Museum, R.I.A.
Lough Rinn (the lake of the promontory) lies in the barony of Mohill. It is mentioned in the Annals of Loch Cé, under date 1345, when O’Conor, “king” of Connaught, was killed by an arrow at Loch Airinn whilst assisting Mac Raghnaill, to whom the crannog on the lake belonged; for the sept of the Mac Rannals formerly possessed the neighbouring district, then called Conmaicue Moyrein. In the year 1847, the waters of Lough Rinn having being lowered, two canoes were found imbedded in the mud near an old castle at the promontory from whence the locality derives its name; there was also a chain, or manacle, composed of iron rods, looped at their ends, like one found in the Strokestown crannogs. One of these canoes was a “single-piece,” hollowed out of oak, and flat-bottomed, the length thirteen feet and the breadth nearly two feet throughout; the sides were only four inches high; but the original depth must have been greater. In front of the old castle stands an island covered with self-sown ash and thorn, and constructed with wooden piles, of slight scantling, but perfectly sound; “the paling was interlaced and pegged down in a very rude manner: the island appeared to have been formed inside of it, and raised upon a similar description of work.” A small bronze arrow and a spear-head were found two feet deep in a gravel shoal close to Rinn Castle, between Loughs Rinn and Sallagh.
St. John’s Lough contained four crannogs, in which three silver coins of Edward I., II., and III. were found.
Loughtown crannog measured one hundred and twenty feet from east to west by one hundred feet from north to south, and was surrounded by a mass of stakes upwards of fifteen feet wide, inclining in towards the centre of the island.
Aghakilconnel Lough.—Three iron pots, one of them triangular in form, were found on this site.