present but a poor defence. Unless therefore the inhabitants were strong enough to defend the shore, their habitations would remain very much at the mercy of an attacking foe.
This brief consideration of the lake-buildings of Switzerland enables us to turn with increased interest to the very analogous remains of our own land—the Irish crannoges. These artificial islands, though long well known, never seem to have been examined till the year 1839, in the case of that of Lagore. A detailed account of the results of this research was communicated to the Royal Irish Academy in the following year by Mr. Wilde.[1] Since that period, in consequence of the works of the Commission for the Arterial Drainage and Inland Navigation of Ireland, no less than forty-six crannoges have been discovered in the lakes of Leitrim, Roscommon, Cavan, Down, Monaghan, Limerick, Meath, King's County, and Tyrone.[2] Many more are probably known, though we have at present no precise information; and a comprehensive work on this interesting portion of our national archæology is greatly to be desired.
We are indebted to Mr. Digby Wyatt for a lucid abstract[3] of the modes of constructing these buildings, which appear to have varied materially. One class, as Lagore, was formed by placing oak beams at the bottom of the lake, above which there are now sixteen feet of bog. Into these horizontal beams, oak posts from six to eight feet high were mortised, and held together by cross beams, till a circular inclosure of 520 feet was obtained. This was divided into sundry timbered compartments which were filled up with earth, and vast quantities of ancient animal remains.[4] Indeed the great demand for the latter as manure mainly led to the discovery in question. So this artificial islet was formed. A second inclosure of posts, based on the first, would show a subsequent rise in the waters of the lake. A great collection of antiquities was found, which, as Lord Talbot de Malahide states, belonged evidently to the iron age.[5] This crannoge, however, probably had its origin in far earlier times, and reliques of the stone
- ↑ Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. i. p. 420.
- ↑ Some accounts of these will be found in Wilde's Catalogue of Antiquities, &c. in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy; and also in vols. i. and v. of the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. In the Appendix to vol. v. p. xliii. is a valuable report by one of the engineers of the Commission, Mr. T. J. Mulvany, on the "Artificial or Stockaded Islands in the Counties of Leitrim, Cavan, and Monaghan."
- ↑ Observations on the Early Habitations of the Irish, &c.
- ↑ These bones consisted of those of several varieties of oxen; also of swine, deer, goats, sheep, dogs, foxes, horses, and asses. Specimens will be found in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. Another such crannoge yielded no less than 150 tons of animal remains.
- ↑ Archæol. Journal, vol. vi. p. 101.
