lMongavHn. it Wfas ineendubh'"~ p1~incipai residence and from here· she wrote the document which contributed so much to the downfall of her son-in-luiw Sir Niall Garbh O'Donnell. A survey of thr. ·principal fortifications of Tirconail, mace in 1600, says "thrc:J mil~s 1abovc Cargan stands the fort of :\I'Gwyvelin, upon the River /Of Lougih Foyle-O'Donnell's imother's chief residence." The ruins, there 1a t present, date from Piantation times and may have been erected. on th2 .site of the older fortress around which was a mediaeval town. There is niothing to show that it was .a cr1annog and \Vood-MartiIJ. must have confused it with C11:.\:inog O'Lappain. Cra.nnog O'La1pp.a,in in the lake n:ow known ,as Portlough nea~ Manorcunningham. See: Ann1als of the Four Masters year 1011 ; Ordnance Survey of Derry p. 207 ; U.J.A. No. 17 year 1857 p. 168 ; Sketches of Erris and Tyrawley p. 214 ; History of th~. Diocese of R1:tiphoe Vol. 1 p. 62. This crannog re-appeared it1 bout the year 1832 when the level of t,he lake was lowered. Lough Vea.g·h. T:he 1cradle of the O'Donnell family. As ]ate as 1608 the dense forests which guarded it were used as a protective screen by Sir Cahir o·.Doherty and his followers. See aJso : AJnnal~~ of the Four 'Masters years 1257, 1524, and 1540. Early in the last century a famie:us potheen maker hiad !his still on this historic crannog. Ses~1augh J~ake, near Dunfanaghy, "with its isJ1and, formerly a cPannog, now .a cabbage garden" (Harkin. Sr:.mery a1nd Antiqui.ties of Nort1h Wet·t Dc1negia.l p. 46). Port Lough (not to be cor:.fused with it.he lake mentioned above) is a mile ·un·a 1a half, south west of Sessaugh Lake. Aecording 'to O'Donovan t1he i~1J.acE:weeneys 'had a ciastle on an is] and there. "Oilen n1a-dTua1th (Port-an-oileh) was taken by .MacSweeney na dTuaith 1.e Owen Og, son of Owen son of Donnell from the sons of Donnell son of Donagh MacSweeney, 1who were slain or1 this OOCa~.ion" An:n.a)s of the Four. Masters year 158:3. Cr;annog na Duini, in Ros Guill. parish of Mcevagh. O'Donovan identified it as one of the two Cashels at the western end of the Downing1s rc:mge of hilJs (Letter from Dunfanaghy Seipt. 1835) and in a note to his edition ·of the Annals, year 1603, he called it the "wooden house nf ·Duni. r:ow Downies of Downings.'' It is most unlikely that "tihe word :Oranncg would be applied to a hill top car,hel in mediaE.,V'a 1 Ireland. Shifting sands have altered the topography of Rossguil from time to time. The Cle~ent Estate m·-:ips of 1770, for instanr::·e, shew two lakes near the Ro13~1apena Hotel and an island which is now part of the mainland separating the site of ·Lord Boyne's caistle and gardens from Mulroy Bay. The earthen platform which sulimounts .the siandhill overlooking Carrigart parish chur:ch and the circle 10f stones and rubble on the sand dunes betiween Tranarossan Hay and Melmore are offered as alternaUves to O'Dornovan's location. Loug·h Birrogne. 'Dhi.s lake lies south .of the viUage of Portnoo m1d Irns the remiajns of ii. stone struoturc, ion a rocky outcrop, near the shore of the lake. It was ,rlJot a very llar1ge building and 327.
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