Crannog

The National Monuments Service's description

At the S shore of Inchiquin Island in Inchiquin Lough. Described by Macnamara (1901a, 210) as ‘a semi-circular row of stakes, 3 or 4 inches in diameter’, seen at low water defining the edge of a semicircular extension of the island. He stated that the stakes ‘were planted in the marly bottom, both ends of the row touching the shore, and the enclosed space was filled with stones and rubbish’ and by then adding another semicircular extension to this artificial platform, ‘the island was very much extended to the south’ (ibid.). He also noted that the shores of the island ‘are littered with stones, many of which may have been squared by the hammer’, and that 50 or 60 years before his time of writing, there was ‘such a large collection of bones of deer and other animals—in fact a subaqueous kitchen-midden—on the eastern side [of the island] near the boat-slip, that a sort of regular trade existed to fish up and sell them.’ (ibid.) On a plan Macnamara published (1901b, 349) he recorded oval-shaped and linear rows of stakes on the shoreline and in shallow water as well as some ‘squared piles’. There is a tower house (CL017-059002-) also on Inchiquin Island.

 

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Conn Herriott 

 

Date of upload: 13-10-2025

References

Macnamara, G.U. 1901a Inchiquin, County Clare. Part I. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 31, 204-227.
Macnamara, G.U. 1901b Inchiquin, County Clare (Concluded). Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 31, 341-364.