Crannog

The National Monuments Service's description

Located at the E end of 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. com. 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 Mahons (Ó Mórdha 1958, 156-8), and probably had been over the previous centuries.
The lake is greatly reduced now from its representation on the 1834 edition of the OS 6-inch map. This E crannog is a circular overgrown island (diam. 18m; H 1m over the water) with deep water c. 2-3m from its shore. Erosion on the N side reveals a matrix of stones with some piles (diam. 0.1-0.2m) spaced c. 1-1.5m apart. The possible ringwork castle (MO012-054----) is on the shore just to the E.

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 view of Bartlett's map with this crannog in the right foreground.

Date of revision: 29 January 2018

References

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

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