Crannógs in north Monaghan

Very Revd James Smyth, PP

 

Paper read at annual general meeting

 

We had better begin in scholastic fashion by defining our terms. A crannóg, in this context, is an artificial island, largely of wood, in an inland lake, or even in a bog. The word crannóg is a derivative of the Gaelic ‘crann’ – a tree. It has been applied to all sorts of things made from timber, from pulpits to ploughs; but for our immediate purpose it means what we have just said. In fact, so numerous are these objects in Ireland, that the word has been internationally adopted by archaeologists.

It was long held by the experts that these crannógs, so widespread in Ulster and Connacht, were a product of the Iron Age, of practically historic times – roughly AD 300 to, maybe, 1500. That theory seems to us to be substantially correct, although it got a jolt after the discoveries at Lough Gara in very recent times. Because crannógs are, as a rule, found singly or at best three or four in one lake, but in Lough Gara no less than 144 were found, obviously constituting a community and containing objects associated with the Stone and Bronze Ages which, the experts estimated, could date back as far as 2,000 BC. As far as we have heard, nothing was found to indicate occupation in the Iron Age; and we know of no reference in the literature to the existence of a community so comparatively large for Ireland at that time. As for structural resemblances, it is obvious that a somewhat similar technique would have to be followed by those who desired to construct such edifices at any time or place, subject, of course, to local variations. So that the Lough Gara group seem to lie out of the subject we are about to consider and, indeed, seems to belong more to the type of lake communities occurring in Central Europe. But crannógs in the sense we are considering seem to belong to a relatively late period and show a certain uniformity both in construction and in use that reflects the local and political conditions of the terrain where they are most numerous – that is from Galway to Antrim and down, the greatest density being from Roscommon to Monaghan.

One reason for their comparative absence from Leinster and Munster would be the absence of lakes of a suitable kind. For what was required was a lake shallow enough for a site but deep enough to discourage wading and small enough for the owners of the crannóg to control what boats there were, but large enough to leave the site out of range of missiles from the shore. Obviously, Loughs Neagh and Erne and the Shannon lakes did not lend themselves to these conditions; but the multitude of small lakes in the region indicated did offer favourable sites and so we find crannógs of most frequent occurrence in that region.

There were different ways of building a crannóg, but in so far as the matter has been investigated – and admittedly little enough has been done – one fairly uniform plan was followed in Ulster at any rate. A suitable site being selected, a ring of oak piles was driven into the bed of the lake and in the circle (or oval) so enclosed, stones, brushwood, earth, etc., were piled and tramped down until a hard foundation was secured. Also the ring was not filled to the top of the piling. Thus, a kind of parapet was provided to prevent the unwary from falling into the water. In this space a house was built, generally of wood, sometimes of stone, with a central hearth and roofed with thatch or ‘scraws’. Some easy access to a boat was provided and there you had your crannóg – secure from sudden attacks, sheltered, but in easy communication with the land when the inhabitants so desired, remembering all the time that the condition of immunity depended primarily on the control of all the boats on that piece of water.

Of course, if suitable islands were provided by nature, there would be no call for all that trouble. But you will find on examination that the glacial lakes of that region do not usually provide such sites. There are, of course, plenty of them on the Shannon and Erne and probably in Donegal; but it is not in these localities that we find crannógs proper.

The advantages of islands as secure places of residence were obvious to our ancestors and the practise of so utilising them and, if necessary, constructing them, is referred to in the Annals. According to Liam Ua Gogáin, the earliest reference to the construction of an island is 702 AD.

The earliest reference by name to a crannóg as such is in 1246 AD in Roscommon. But the practice was pretty obviously in vogue a long time before these casual references. They continued to be used, repaired and probably continued to be built, right down to the close of the sixteenth century. They served a variety of purposes: secure residences, storehouses, workshops, places of detention for prisoners and hostages. We know this from historical references and from objects found in them, e.g. large vessels like containers and the tools of smiths and other metal-workers. But, in the unceasing strife, both local and against the English, in the period 1350-1600, their use became almost totally of a military nature. The instances that occur most readily are the O’Donnell stronghold at Lough Veagh in Donegal and Shane O’Neill’s islands where he kept his treasures and prisoners; but you will find that almost every petty lord had a crannóg at his disposal. In the sixteenth century small stone castles began to be built, but it is surprising how often these are convenient to crannógs, e.g. Kinard, Portnelligan, Monaghan, Roosky.

That is a long preamble to ‘Crannógs in north Monaghan’, but since many of our readers have never heard of or seen a crannóg, it seemed necessary to explain. Indeed, there is little reason why they should not have seen one, for almost all the little bushy islands in the lakes of Monaghan and the adjoining counties are the remains f crannógs. Or, if you see an isolated cluster of bushes in flat bogs, you might reasonably suspect that it also was a crannóg, because these flat bogs are often lakes that steadily filled up with vegetation until they became what the country people call ‘blind’. In this article we confined ourselves to north Monaghan, because it happened to be the area with which we are best acquainted, but all we have said applies equally well to Fermanagh, Cavan, south Monaghan and, to a lesser extent, to Armagh and the Clogher Valley. But in the area determined, we will consider these crannógs which, either because of historical references or because they have been investigated, are of special interest.

the earliest crannóg of which we have mention is in Loughooney, about four miles from Clones, which for a long period seems to have been the headquarters of the kingdom of Farney. It is important to remember that Farney at that period did not signify the modern barony of that name, but the southern of the two lordships into which the older Oriel tended more and more to divide, i.e. roughly Monaghan county and the part of Fermanagh adjacent to Clones. There are a number of references to Loughooney. The first is in the Annals of Ulster, AD 719, and mentions the murder of the two lords in Loughooney. The lords referred to were the sons of the King of Oriel, from which king also the later lords of Farney were descended. Again, in 851 Cairell, lord of Loughooney, of the same descent, was slain ‘before the door of the church of Tigernach in Clones’. In 988 Laidgnen, again of the same descent, was killed in Armagh by the Kinel Eoghain. He is described by the poet, Flann Mainistrech, as ‘Lords of wide Loughooney’. It is not so very wide now, but like most of our lakes it has diminished greatly, partly through improved drainage, partly through the growth of aquatic vegetation. The last reference is in 1025 AD, where it is recorded that Cathlan, King of Farney, made a raid on the people of Fermanagh who retaliated by another raid as far as Loughooney, which they burned, killing sixteen men on the strand.

The next crannóg to which we have reference is in Loughleck near Corcaghan, about three miles from Monaghan. In 1297 the Papal Bull, Clericis Laicos, was proclaimed and assented to by  the reigning McMahon and his vassals ‘at our stronghold of Lochnlach’. The crannóg still exists in the lake at the foot of the hill of leck, where the McMahon lords were inaugurated until 1592. In a dry summer its black oaken piling is still visible.

Next in interest comes the crannóg of Monaghan or Tully, in the Convent lake. It looks very small now to have anything in the way of a house, but of course, once the piling fell into disrepair and collapse, the materials it had protected would gradually disintegrate by the action of the water. It is the next place in which we find a McMahon residence. there seems to be some doubt as to whether there was an actual stone castle at Monaghan. tradition ascribes its site to the present infirmary. It is obvious that if the McMahons could build a Franciscan friary, they could just as easily have built themselves a stone castle if the choose to. But the Irish of those days did not attach the same importance to stone as building material that we used to and possibly considered crannógs a better military investment than castles. However, the building of small castles was in vogue then, e.g. Kinard, Portnelligan, Ardgonnell, Crieffkieran, Dungannon, Enniskillen, Roosky. The difficulty is that when the annalists use the word ‘caisleán’, it is never quite certain that they are not referring to any stronghold – ringfort, wooden house on land, crannóg, or actual stone castle. but the probability is that there was a stone castle at Monaghan – the one to which, as the annals describe, a wounded O’Neill princeling fought his way after a fight at Bealach-a-choileir (now Bellachullion), between Monaghan and the cathedral, in which the McMahons fought for one O’Neill faction against another.

There is no crannóg that I know of in Truagh, except probably the island in Glaslough. But Tydavnet has quite a number – Annahagh (Hollywood), Annyalty, two in Mount Louise. Annahagh – and, at a later date when the wars were over, Annyalty –  was the residence of Patrick Mac Art Maoil MacMahon, one of the ‘seven sons of Art Maol who dwell in the fastness under Slieve Beagh’ (State Papers). Patrick Mac Art Maoil was one of the contenders for the lordship of Monaghan in 1590 and fought reluctantly enough under Hugh O’Neill. His sons Art and Brian were conspicuous in 1641. Art was captured at the siege of Drogheda. His son Art Roe was killed at the siege of Athlone and, according to local tradition, his son, who had returned to his old home, was shot by one of the Slacks as he sat at the door of his house in Annahagh, in sight of his grandfather’s island stronghold.

There is a crannóg in Clenlough, near Smithboro’, at the narrow part of the lough, and another in Kilcorran, so much overgrown that it is difficult to explore. No sign of piling can be discovered, but the rather deep channel between it and the mainland is suggestive. Kilcorran was part of the grant made in 1591 to Rory, brother to Patrick Mac Art Maoil.

There are three crannógs in Roosky Lough and sites of two more in Drumcaw in a marshy flat which in 1592 was a lake – so quickly can these changes take place. To deal with the first group, they adjoin Brian MacHugh Óg’s castle of Roosky, which stood on a knoll at the northern corner of the lake. There are no remains of the castle now, but it looks as if the site had already been insular or had been isolated artificially. Of the crannógs, the most interesting feature is that one of them is called ‘Lushney’s island’, suggesting the name ‘Glaisne’. This was a favourite name, now long obsolete, among the MacMahons. It was a thrill to find it still on men’s lips.

The sites on Drumcaw have not been located yet as far as we know, but we know they are there from State Papers which describe their destruction in 1598. although the general rising in the north had not yet begun, Maguire and Brian MacHugh Óg (the last MacMahon lord in Monaghan) were already in trouble with the government and making themselves very bad neighbours to such people as did not agree with them, especially to Connor Roe Maguire, Patrick MacArt Maol, the MacArdles and MacKennas. Bagnal marched north to deal with the situation with English forces and met with the Monaghan and Truagh dissidents at Ballybay, whence he advanced to Drumcaw. Brian did not choose to fight – on their terms at any rate. But his garrison occupied various islands in Dartry and refused to surrender. since the Drumcaw crannógs were out of musket shot from the shore and there were apparently, no boats, another plan was tried. Piles of brushwood and timber were collected on the windward side, tied together, set on fire and floated into the lake. The wind drifted them down on the doomed crannógs and those of the garrison who escaped the fire were shot or drowned in the lake. The other crannógs were abandoned by the wardens as a result of this and Bagnal pursued his way into Fermanagh to deal with its affairs.

In the stretch of country from Ballybay to Wattlebridge – the parishes of Aghabog, Ematris, Tullycorbet and Currin – there are many lakes and doubtless as many crannógs, but so far we have no personal acquaintance with them, nor have we heard or read anything of special interest about them, we will pass now to the adjoining district of Fermanagh, the barony of Clankelly. the first two, in Killavilla and Drumcritten loughs, beside Roslea, are notable for having been investigated by Dr Darcy, a local medical man and amateur archaeologist. What he found is of interest only to experts – fragments of pottery, iron tools, leather and beads. Killavilla is the head of a chain of loughs, perhaps of one vast lough which has been gradually turned into a flat marshy valley. There are three other lakes still open in the expanse, one of them being Drumcritten. On the shore of this lake is an oval hammock, easily accessible on foot in summer, on which Dr Darcy discovered a hearth and some other finds of the same kind as in Killavilla. Luke Carbery of Potteagh, who did the actual digging for him, described his methods to me. The Doctor began by digging two trenches, one at the greatest length, the other at the greatest breadth, at the intersection of which he discovered the hearth. After that the whole island was methodically dug over and every spadeful sieved through a riddle. According to Luke there are two more crannógs hidden among the reeds along the same side of the vast marsh which were never investigated. Also, according to Luke, the doctor did not regard the islands in Kilcorran or in the adjacent Inver Lough as being crannógs – why, he did not say. It must be remembered that Dr Darcy was an archaeologist rather than a historian and as we have already indicated our opinion that crannógs are matters of history rather than pre-history.

Of the chain of lakes along the foot of Slieve Beagh, parallel to the Roslea-Lisnaskea road, we have not made a sufficiently thorough investigation yet to say anything, but we hope to have the pleasure of supplying the deficiency later on, both here and on the southern side of Clones.

The O’Reilly’s seem to have discovered the answer to the amateur ‘fire ships’ of Drumcaw when they built Cloghoughter – a stone castle on an island – but they probably had a natural foundation of limestone rock to support its weight. However, the age of crannógs was at an end. Ten years after the burning of Drumcaw, Hugh O’Neill made his last stand in the winter of 1602-3 in Glenconkein where, tradition has it, his headquarters were in the crannóg of Lough Muck near Moneymore. After that, with all Ireland subdued and united under one authority, crannógs were no longer required and fell into decay. We know that at least two of them were used for military purposes in the wars of 1641 – Loughinisholin in south Derry and Lough Laeghaire near Newtownstewart. They were occupied for a time by Irish garrisons. Another, Roughan Island near Dungannon, was the scene of the capture of Sir Phelim O’Neill in 1651. After that it is likely they were used by Tories and Rapparees when it suited thm. Finally they became the haunts of fishermen and poteen-makers and mouldered slowly into oblivion and decay.

They offer a tempting field for investigation, but from the nature of their situation, effective research would be an expensive business. One thing we would recommend, that any research be controlled by people who are trained for the work, not by enthusiastic and sometimes ill-informed amateurs. The bits and pieces we have referred to are of no intrinsic value. It would be well to impress on local people that there are no crocks of gold in crannógs. But the evidence, fragmentary as it may be, is of value to the expert archaeologists, but only if it is left or recorded exactly as it was found. If you feel like investigating the local crannóg, get in touch with the universities or learned societies. They will provide the ‘know-how’; your contribution will be the voluntary spade work or the financial help.

(What was a lough in Drumcaw in 1600 is now a swamp, completely overgrown and divided by a road. Revd John MacDermott, CC, has pointed out here at least one crannóg that one can reach dry-shod. There is another crannóg surrounded by dry land in the corner of Creevaghy that lies next Legnakelly and Mullanacloy, to the left of and near the road from Clones to Monaghan. The lane beside it is known as the ‘Loch Bán’ lane, indicating the name of the lough that once surrounded the crannóg. There is another ‘dry’ crannóg in the corner of Clonkeen Cole, next Clones, across the road from the creamery. – Ed. note).

 

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