Crannog

The National Monuments Service's description

Standing in Lough Lene 260m NE of the SW shoreline with Nun's Island (WM008-110----) 550m to NNE and Turgesius Island 560m to ENE. This crannóg was surveyed in 1987 as part of the ‘Crannog Archaeological Project’ (Farrell and Brady n.d., 4) where it was recorded it as follows: ‘A very large number of massive worked planks were found in the silt to the south and west of the island. Some of these timbers were over ten metres in length, and it was quite clear that relatively sophisticated joinery was evident on a number of them. Given the number and size of the worked timbers, it is very probably that the timber structure that originally surrounded the island was many times the size of the small stone covered crannog with which they were associated.’ (ibid., 4).
Described by O'Sullivan (2004, 108-9) as a 'large, low, circular cairn (dims. 18m N-S x 20m E-W; H 4.5m) of large limestone slabs, stones and timber, built in unusually deep water (3-6m) between Turgesius Island and the western shore of Lough Lene (250m from shore). It is locally known as ‘Castle Island’ and is depicted as such on OS maps. The cairn has a level upper surface, is quite sharp and steep-sided on its north, east and southeast shores, but slopes more gradually towards the west (facing towards the mainland). There are horizontal oak beams (10cm diameter) visible within the stones of the cairn, particularly on the north and west sectors. These oak planks and beams are mortised and well-hewn. Intriguingly, there is also a large assemblage of 5-10 heavy oak timbers (5-6m in length, 30-40cm width), lying on the lakebed muds, in 5-6m water depth 10-12m to the NNE of the island. It is possible that this small cairn would once have supported a much larger structure in wood. An early medieval bronze bell (NMI 1881:535) was found on the crannog in the 19th century. Castle Island was previously surveyed by the Crannóg Archaeological Project and the site has produced a dendrochronology date of AD 855 ± 9 years'.

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 14 February 2017

References

Farrell, R.T. and Brady, N. n.d. Recent research on crannogs in the Irish midlands: the Crannog Archaeology Project (CAP). Unpublished paper, SMR file LF011-035----, National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin.

O'Sullivan, A. 2004 The social and ideological roles of crannogs in early medieval Ireland. Unpublished PhD thesis. Department of History, NUI Maynooth.