CRANNÓGA/CRANNOGSat Moynagh Lough (Co. Meath) and Sroove (Co. Sligo),
have also revealed evidence for houses, pathways,
fences, pits, working areas, and the debris of domestic
life and industrial production.
Origins and Chronology
The origins and chronology of crannogs have largely
been reconstructed through the results of excavations,
artifactual studies, and radiocarbon and dendrochrono-
logical dating. It is now evident that crannogs were
being built and occupied in the Late Bronze Age and
possibly into the early Iron Age, when they appear to
have variously functioned as defended lake dwellings,
metalworking platforms, and as places for cult activities
such as the deposition of metalwork into water. How-
ever, it is also clear that the most intensive phase of
crannog building, occupation, and abandonment in Ire-
land lies within the early Middle Ages (c. 400–1000).
There appears to have been an explosion of crannog
building in the late sixth and early seventh centuries
A.D., probably due to both social change and political
upheaval. It is also evident that many early medieval
crannogs were occupied over several hundred years,
although this was not always continuous. It is also clear
that many crannogs were built and reoccupied in the
later Middle Ages, when the Irish annals indicate that
they were being used as lordly strongholds, prisons,
hospitals, ammunition stores, and as places to keep sil-
ver and gold plate. They were also used as Gaelic Irish
strongholds in Ulster in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, when they are described in English commen-
taries and depicted in the pictorial maps of Richard
Bartlett, completed around 1602. There is also evidence
that some crannogs were used as seasonal dwellings or
refuges for the poor, and as hideouts for outlaws, in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Geographical Distribution
The geographical distribution of Irish crannogs is now
broadly understood, and it is likely that there are at
least 1,200 sites (although undoubtedly many remain
undiscovered along marshy and wooded lakeshores).
Crannogs are widely distributed across the lakelands
of the midlands, northwest, west, and north of Ireland.
They are particularly concentrated in the northwest
drumlin lakes of Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim, and
Roscommon. Crannogs are known in every county of
Ulster, in a belt stretching from Fermanagh, through
south Tyrone and Armagh, to mid-Down, with partic-
ular concentrations in Monaghan and Cavan. Crannogs
are more dispersed across the west and northeast,
although concentrations can be identified, such as
those around Castlebar Lough (Co. Mayo) and Lough
Gara (Co. Sligo). Other regions, such as Westmeath,
have smaller numbers, but a few crannogs have been
identified further south and east. Crannogs tend to be
found on smaller lakes, being apparently infrequent on
the very large midland lakes of the River Shannon
(e.g., Lough Ree) and River Erne.Siting and Morphology
Recent archaeological studies indicate that crannogs
vary significantly in local siting, morphology, and
construction. For example, in Westmeath, most cran-
nogs are actually found in quite shallow water, often
being connected to the nearby shoreline by narrow
stone causeways. However, other crannogs can also
be found in much deeper water, up to 5 to 6 meters
in depth, situated at some distance from the shoreline
(e.g., 60–100 m). It is also evident that crannogs often
vary in size, from relatively large cairns 18 to 25
meters in diameter by 3 to 4 meters in height (e.g.,
Croinis, Lough Ennell), to smaller mounds 8 to 10
meters in diameter and 1 to 2 meters in height (as at
Sroove, Co. Sligo). Recent archaeological surveys on
some lakes, such as Lough Gara (Co. Sligo) and
Lough Derravarragh and Lough Ennell (Co. West-
meath), indicate that they are often together in
groups, with several smaller platforms on the shore-
line overlooking a larger, impressive crannog in the
water. This may reflect a sequence of crannog occu-
pation across time, or the expression of social and
ideological relationships between lords and their ten-
ants in the Middle Ages.
Crannogs also produce evidence, from both archae-
ological survey and excavation, for a wide range of
other structures, such as houses, outdoor working
spaces, middens of bone and discarded objects, defined
entrances, jetties, pathways, and stone causeways.
Crannogs have also produced large assemblages of
artifacts, both as a result of archaeological excavation
and as discoveries made both accidentally or by design
(e.g., by treasure hunters in the 1980s). These material
assemblages have included items of clothing (shoes,
textiles), personal adornment (brooches, pins, rings),
weaponry (swords, spearheads, axes, shields), and
domestic equipment (knives, chisels, axes).Interpreting the Social and Cultural Role
of Crannogs
Traditionally, scholars have interpreted the social and
economic role of medieval crannogs in terms of power,
defensiveness, and social display. Thence, they have
often been seen as island strongholds or isolated refuges