to set up r·ecords but to draw attention to the many neglected inronuments of this nature throughout the 1county and to solicit information and details of those included or not included in this preliminary report on the Cr1annogs of County Donegal. , I~n order to stimulate ian interest in this aspe.ct of Done1gal rhis.tory may we remind our readers that, from earliest times down to 'the ·eclipse of the Celtic war lords, the Criannog 1was a very :important habitation. This anay be ,gleaned from a description of them which is very applictable to life in ancient and mediaeval Tirconail. "As a generirll rule . . . crannogs were constriucted at such a distance frcm the .shlore of a lake as to be inaccessible exicept by means iaf a boat ; there being no reason to believe that any kind of wooden bridge was ever employed for communicating with the land. A few oi them were approached by moles or causeways. ·If 1we consider that until a fe:w centuries <ago these lakes 1were emb!osomed in dense forests (1which have jdisappeared) ; that the country was intersected in all directions, especially in Ulster, b~ bogs and morasses, of which we still see remains; -and that very few roads, deservi.~g the name, existed in the whole country, we can readily see that these .island fortresses must have been very diffiieult of access.'' (U.J.A. 1859 Vol. 7 pl83). The foUowing is our l_is ~t of Tirconail crannogs, to date, and it includes the ~our mentioned by \Voodimartin :- Jlnn-'1s mic Conail captured by Hugh Soy O'Donnell and Niall Garb's English 1allies in 1602. O'Donovan !identified it as the O'Donnell fortress in Louig!h Eske. This, however, is disproved by 1an entry in the Four Masters Wihich tells that later in the :same year Earl Rory r~turned to Ltough Eske, which was the only fiartress left to him in Tirhugh. From its 1c1ontexit with Innishamer it :may be assumed that Innis mic Conail 1was somewhere in the Bally:shtannon district. .\\la~ it the Abbey Island ? IsJ~nd O'Donr.~n (Lough Eske) which O'Donovan equated with Innis mic Cona.il has still the ruins of the fortress in whiah Hugh Roe O'-Donnell inprisoned O'Oon:nor Sligo. Illanmore Lake. One of a group of four lakes in the Townawilly mountains, between Barnesmore and Lough Belshade. This district is very rich in archaeologictal remains and was associated with ;the outlawed septs of t,he "Gerranban" down to their subj-ection by Hugh R1oe O'Donnell. l'"ough Moume. ·Situated on the platenu overlooking Barne2tr.ore. in the tawnland of Ca~helnavean; it is visible from the Derry~Sliga road 1and w:t:s called Loch Mulmourne in the Civil Survey (1656). Local tradition teHs that St. Patrick visited the island. Mongavlin. One of the crannogs mentioned by Wood-Martin. In 15R8 Hugh, son of the Dc~n O'Gallngher, ,who was also a reputej 1son of C:•kng·h O'Donnell of Cnstlefin. was .s-l1nin at. the instigation of Indeendubh when "full of Pride and arrogance" he culled at 326.
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