Fig. 237.—General view of Ballygawley Lake and Crannog.
Fig. 238.—Beam, or Stretcher, binding tops of Piles, 10 ft. 6 in. long by 9 in. broad.
Ballygawley.—This lake, picturesquely situated at the foot of the Slieve Dæane range of mountains, is embosomed in wood, which may be viewed as now representing the primeval mantle that had formerly covered the neighbouring slopes, when
“The wolf, the wild-cat, and the bear,
Prowled in these woods, or made their lair.”
The crannog lies about one hundred and eighty yards from the eastern shore, and the diameter of the area covered with stones is eighty-five feet, but the wooden substructure extends to a considerable distance under water. The beams, protruding from under the superincumbent stones, appeared—as is usual—to radiate from a common centre, but two beams on the west shore, and one that was raised from a depth of one foot under the present water surface on the south shore, seemed to lie at a tangent to the circle of the crannog. In [fig. 238] the mortises [a, b] secured the heads of piles, and [c, d] (of larger size) may have held some of the radial beams. The highest point of the crannog now stands about five feet above the level of the lake, which has been reduced three feet in height, as the result of drainage operations carried out by the proprietor, Colonel Cooper. Some of the encircling piles remain in position; three were noticed on the north, and one on the south-east shore. To the west and south the water is shallow, and this shoal would seem to have been the “kitchen midden,” or refuse heap, for numerous teeth of the Bos longifrons were here dredged up, and close to the encircling piles lay a quantity of fractured hazel nuts and some pieces of charcoal. On the east and west there were, in the fine sand on the crannog beach, small portions of calcined bones, resembling those found in the cromlech interments at Carrowmore. A. W. Foot, M.D., to whom they were submitted, states that these fragments were “undoubtedly bone, several of them unmistakably calcined (from carbonaceous residue). Some of the fragments are entirely composed of carbonate of lime, others are a mixture of carbonate and phosphate of lime. It could not be determined whether they are animal or human; this should be conjectured from surrounding or collateral circumstances.”