CRANNOGS OF TIRCONAILL BY J. C. T. MacDONAGH, B. COMM. . col:onel Wiood-..Martin's 'L.ake Dwellings', published in 1886, is still a popular textbook on this aspect of ancient a;nd mediaeval life 1in Ireland. In prepfaring hi.s book tihe author drew largely on the fieldwork of his engraver, W. F. Wakeman, and on .reports furnish· ed t:o the 1Board of Works, from about 1852 onwards, by engineers e·ngaged in drairnage schemes. A paper, read by one of these engineers, Mulvanny, at a meeting of the membeiis of the Royal Irish Academy, stimulated great interest in Iri1sh Crannogs 1as it wras .acccr1111panied by a larg.e donation of objects found by him during the course of his work. t~Iulva·nny's paper 1was followed lby -\:Vilde'1s "fllus\traJted Oa:talogue of the Academy's Museum of AJntiquities'' which gave ian excellent account of artificial islands, known 1as Crann!ogs. Since County Donegal did not 1share in these nineteenth 1century drainage schemes, Wood-Martin'1s book has but scanty references to four crannogrs in the coupty. Had he examined the Ar~n:als or O'Donovan's Letters he would have f'ound that Tirconail chientains, piartiioularly in the western parts of the county, appear to have had a predile!Ction for this type of fortifi .. cation. 1Jts numerous lakes, rnme of whioh are still almost inaccessible, no doubt, were responsible for :this choice of habitation in a countryside which was partilcular1y vulnerable by se1a .. raiders. • Of the four crannog1s, mentioned by Wood-Martin, Crannogboy, Driimkelin, uough Veigh and Mong1arvlin, the last, if ever it existed, mUist have been an island in Lough Foyle and, therefore does not 1come within the scientific terms of being an·· artificial lake dwelling erected from the bed of a ltake. !\Vere 1we allowed sHch freedom then 1we could claim that Innishamer, at the mouth of the Erne, i1s i:he oldest crannog in Ireland. We should~ how1ev-er, like to 1point out that the Crannog users of County Doneg1al, unlike those in other parts of Ireland rarely !t1 ... md it necessary to create artificiial islands since :niatiure had provided our lakeis with a variety of islands and rd('ky outcrops. For this reason it is doubtful if any of our cr1annog1s will iurnish archn eologists with tlhe stratified occupational layers which are a feature of the 1airtifJidal isila:nd. If for this reawn, too, our list includes places whi('h do not satisfy the rnonc!"n eoncept of n crannog it is becnuse we have found 1 ho.m desr.rib0<l as sunh .!n fhe Annals of the Four M:astcrs mid elsewhere. Onr purpose, therefore, is not 325.
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