Crannog

The National Monuments Service's description

Located in Roosky Lough, which is a rectangular lake (max. dims c. 370m WNW-ESE; c. 160m NNE-SSW) with a rectangular extension (max. dims c. 350m NNE-SSW; c. 110m WNW-ESE) extending S from its W end. Two crannogs in an L-shaped lake are represented on a Bartlett map of 1602-03, which have been mistaken for the crannog in Monaghan town (MO009-037----) (O’Sullivan 1997, Pl. 58), but the representation corresponds closest to Roosky lake (pers. comm. Grace Moloney 2012). The Bartlett map indicates that these crannogs were occupied or re-occupied in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when Roosky was a power centre of the Dartry Mac Manons (Ó Mórdha 1957, 156-8).
The lake is greatly reduced now from its representation on the 1834 edition of the OS 6-inch map. This W crannog is a circular island (diam. 14m N-S; 13m E-W; H 0.7m over the water) surrounded by reeds, except at S where the water is deep. The matrix is stones and clay, but piles can be seen protruding from the mound at S.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Monaghan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Revised by: Michael Moore

See the attached image from Bartlett's map with this crannog at right centre.

Date of revision: 29 January 2018

References

Ó Mórdha, P. 1958 The Mac Mahons of Monaghan (1603-1640). Clogher Record, vol. 2, No. 1, 148-69.

O'Sullivan, A. 1998 The archaeology of lake settlement in Ireland. Discovery Programme Monograph No. 4. Dublin. Royal Irish Academy.