Part 42

The construction of a crannog must have been a gigantic operation in those days, requiring in many cases the services of the whole clan. Having fixed on a suitable locality--the topographical requirements of which seemed to be a small mossy lake, with its margin overgrown with weeds and grasses, and secluded amidst the thick meshes of the primæval forests--the next consideration was the selection of the materials for constructing the island. In a lake containing soft and yielding sediment of decomposed vegetable matter, it is manifest that any heavy substances, such as stones and earth, would be totally inadmissible, owing to their weight, so that solid logs of wood, provided there was an abundant supply at hand, would be the best and cheapest material that could be used.

The general plan adopted was to make an island of stems of trees and brushwood laid transversely, with which stones and earth were mingled. This mass was pinned together, and surrounded by a series of stockades, which were firmly united by intertwining branches, or, in the more artistically constructed crannogs, by horizontal beams with mortised holes to receive the uprights. These horizontal beams were arranged in two ways. One set ran along the circumference and bound together all the uprights in the same circle, while others took a radial direction and connected each circle together. Sometimes the latter were long enough to embrace three circles. The external ends of these radial beams were occasionally observed to be continuous with additional strengthening materials, such as wooden props and large stones, which, in some cases, appeared also to have acted as a breakwater. The mechanical skill displayed in their structure was specially directed to give stability to the island and to prevent superincumbent pressure from causing the general mass to bulge outwards.

South of the Scottish border the remains of lake-dwellings are too much decayed or imperfectly observed to furnish many reliable data bearing on this subject. So far, however, as the evidence goes it would appear that the artificial island in Llangorse and the lacustrine dwellings in Holderness were true fascines; the former, indeed, having all the appurtenances of the typical crannog.

The crannogs were made accessible by various means. Some had moles or stone causeways, the existence of which, in some instances, became known only upon the drainage of the lake. Hence it is conjectured that these approaches might have been always submerged, and so supplied, on emergencies, a secret means of communication with the shore. This idea was suggested by the tortuous direction which many of them assumed, as for example the causeway discovered in the Loch of Sanquhar which had a zig-zag direction and so could only be waded by persons intimately acquainted with its windings. Others were approached by a wooden gangway, the evidence of which now consists only of the stumps of a double row of piles. Others again were completely insulated and accessible only by boats. One feature regarding some of the wooden gangways deserves particular attention. Both at Lochlee and Lochspouts the piles were found to be tightly embraced at their lower extremities by a curiously constructed network of transverse beams. As the surface of these elaborate structures was buried from 3 to 7 feet beneath the lake-bed, my first impression was that they might have been used, like the submerged stone causeways, as a concealed means of communicating with the shore. To test this suggestion I had a special excavation made along the line of a gangway at the Miller's Cairn in Loch Dowalton. (B. 426, p. 102.) After digging through 3 feet of the consolidated and hardened mud, we came upon a stratum of fine blue clay, extremely tenacious, and little liable to displacement. The pointed stakes of the gangway, which penetrated into this clay only a few inches, here met with a firm resistance. It then occurred to me that the ingeniously arranged wooden beams at Lochlee and Lochspouts served merely the same end as the blue clay at the Millers Cairn, and that they were to be found only in localities where there was a great depth of mud incapable of affording a sufficient basis of resistance to the piles. Such difficulties have been encountered by the constructors of pile-dwellings in all countries; and it is curious to note the variety of methods by which they were overcome. The Swiss lake-dwellers sometimes surrounded the piles with heaps of stones which now go under the name of _steinbergs_; at other times split planks were laid on the soft mud into which the piles were mortised. The former plan was adopted on rocky shores too hard for piles to be driven in, and the latter where there was a great depth of soft mud, as at Wollishofen and other stations adjacent to the town of Zürich. In North Germany, as Persanzig, Aryssee, and other localities, the log-house principle, which greatly economised the materials, was adopted in the construction of the subaqueous foundations. It appears to me that this was the principle adopted in the structure of the great Irish crannog of Lagore, as Sir W. Wilde distinctly states that it was "divided into separate compartments by septa or divisions that intersected one another in different directions." It was in these compartments, which were filled with bones and black mud, that the antiquities were found; so that the crannog-dwellers must have used them as kitchen-middens. Originally they contained only water, but in the course of time they became filled with food refuse and other _débris_. House-cleaning was thus reduced to a minimum, while the laws of sanitation were not more violated than in the underground cess-pools of many of our modern dwellings. A curious statement by Wilde in regard to the disposal of bones at Lagore is that "the remains of each species of animal were placed in separate divisions, with but little intermixture with any others."

It may be also mentioned that the log-house structures described by Pigorini as lining the inside of the surrounding dyke in the terramara of Castione were perfectly analogous, only in this case the compartments were filled with clay and rubbish, so as to act better as _contraforte_ to the clay wall.

Canoes are so invariably found associated with crannogs that their discovery in lakes and bogs has been considered by Dr. Stuart as an indication of the existence of the latter. This may be true in some cases; but in others, such as Closeburn, Lochwinnoch, and Loch Doon, three of the examples cited by him, it is more probable that the canoes were used by the occupiers of the mediæval castles in the vicinity of which they were found. From these and other instances that have come under my notice I have come to the conclusion that dug-out canoes do not indicate such great antiquity as is commonly attributed to them, nor do they therefore necessarily carry us back to prehistoric times.

There is no peculiarity in the structure or form of these dug-outs which distinguishes their age or nationality. There is a good collection of them in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. Some have pointed prows and square-cut sterns; others have both ends pointed; some have cross bands, like ribs, left in the solid oak at regular intervals, as if to strengthen the vessel; while others are uniformly scooped out without any raised ridges. They vary much in size and shape. The largest is thus referred to in the small handbook to the Museum:--"Down the centre of the room extends the largest known canoe, formed of a single tree. The remains measure 42 feet in length, and the canoe was probably 45 feet long, by 4 to 5 feet wide, in its original state. It was recovered from the bottom of Loch Owel, in West Meath, and cut into eight sections for purposes of transport. There is a curious arrangement of apertures in the bottom, apparently to receive the ends of uprights supporting an elevating deck."

One of the canoes found at Lochlee, the remains of which are still preserved in the Burns' Museum at Kilmarnock, measured when disinterred 10 feet long, 2½ broad, and 1¾ deep. There were nine apertures in its bottom, arranged in two rows, four on each side, with the odd one at the apex. These holes were perfectly round, and exactly one inch in diameter; but when the boat was found they were quite unobserved, being all tightly plugged up, and it was only long afterwards that the plugs, upon drying, dropped out and so revealed their existence.

During the summer of 1874 a canoe (=Fig. 177=) was discovered in Loch Arthur, or Lotus Loch, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, in the vicinity of a small artificial island, which is thus described by Rev. James Gillespie:--

"When fully exposed to view by the trench which was dug around it, the canoe was seen to be of great size, ornately finished, and in a fair state of preservation. It had been hollowed out of the trunk of an oak, which must have been a patriarch of the forest, the extreme length of the canoe bring 45 feet and the breadth at the stern 5 feet. The boat gradually tapers from the stern to the prow, which ends in a remarkable prolongation resembling the outstretched neck and head of an animal. When excavated this portion of the canoe was entire. At the neck of the figurehead there is a circular hole, about 5 inches in diameter, from side to side. At the prow a small flight of steps has been carved in the solid oak from the top to the bottom of the canoe. The stern is square, and formed of a separate piece of wood, inserted in a groove about an inch and a half from the extremity of the canoe.

"Along the starboard side (which when found was in good preservation, except near the stern) there could be traced seven holes about three inches in diameter. The three front holes were nearly perfect, but at the stern the side was so broken that only the lower parts of the holes could be observed. They are about five feet apart, and the front hole is about that distance from the prow--the last being about seven feet from the stern. There are three holes pierced through the bottom at irregular intervals." (_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. xi. p. 21.)

A curious feature presented by some of these canoes was that accidental defects had been repaired, and the method adopted in its execution is worth noticing. The canoe found close to the Buston crannog already described (page 428), showed this peculiarity in a marked degree. Another from the Loch of Canmor is thus described by the Rev. James Wattie:--

"On the 16th June, 1859, there was fished up from the bottom of the loch, near the north shore, opposite to the Prison Island, a canoe (=Fig. 178=) hollowed out of a single oak-tree, 22½ feet long, 3 feet 2 inches wide over the top at the stern, 2 feet 10 inches in the middle, and 2 feet 9 inches at 6 feet from the bow, which ended nearly in a point. The edges are thin and sharp, the depth irregular--in one place 5 inches, the greatest 9 inches. There are no seats, nor rollocks or places for oars; but there may have been seats along the sides, secured by pins through holes still in the bottom. There are two rents in the bottom, alongside of each other, about eighteen feet long each; to remedy these, five bars across had been mortised into the bottom outside, from 22 to 27 inches long and 3 inches broad, except at the ends, where they were a kind of dovetailed, and 4 inches broad. One of these bars still remains, and is of very neat workmanship, and neatly mortised in. The other bars are lost, but their places are quite distinct. They have been fastened with pins, for which there are five pairs of holes through the bottom of the canoe, at the opposite side, at a distance of from 18 to 20 inches, the bottom being flattish. There are also five pairs of larger holes through the bottom, etc." (B. 94, p. 167.)

Exact parallels to all these have been found in the Continental lake-dwellings. Of two found at Vingelz, Lake of Bienne, the largest was 43½ feet long, 4 feet 4 inches wide, and had 4 ribs left in the solid. It had iron cramps also, apparently to strengthen it, and belonged to the pre-Roman Iron Age. One at Cudrefin had also these solid cross ribs. One of the best preserved was found a few years ago at Vingrave (Lake of Bienne) covered with 2½ feet of mud, and is now deposited in the Museum of Neuveville. It is roughly made, having thick sides and a square-cut stern, with a groove for a movable stern-piece. From measurements lately taken by myself I found it to be 30½ feet long, rather less than 3 feet wide, and its greatest depth 1 foot. Its sides had four or five cuts along their margin, apparently for the use of oars. (B. 392, p. 20.)

That the crannogs in Scotland and Ireland lingered on sufficiently long to come within the borderland of history requires no great amplification here. The references to crannogs in the Irish annals are very numerous, extending over a period from the middle of the ninth to the seventeenth century.

In 1870 there was published in the _Journal of the Royal Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland_ (B. 171_a_) an account of an unsuccessful attack on a crannog near Omagh, in the year 1566, by an English army under the command of Deputy Lord Sydney. This document, which was copied by Dr. Caulfield from despatches in the Public Record Office, London, gives a vivid description of the methods adopted in the attack and defence. A kind of pontoon was constructed on "floating barrels," which conveyed the attacking party to the island; but they found it "so bearded with stakes and other sharp wood, as it was not without extreme difficulty scaleable, and so ramparted as if the hedge had been burned--for doing whereof the fireworks failed--without a long time it was not to be digged down. Yet some scaled to the top, whereof Edward Vaughan was one, who, being pushed with a pike from the same, fell between the hedge and the bridge, and being heavily armed--albeit he could swim perfect well--was drowned, and two others hurt upon the rampart and drowned," etc.

That these island forts, however impregnable they might be considered in previous ages, had ultimately to succumb before the more modern resources of warfare, is shown by the following narrative taken from the Calendar of State Papers of Ireland, vol. 156, p. 374:--

"There was one Dualtagh O'Conner, a notorious traitor, that of all the rest continued longest as an outlaw, of power to do mischief. He had fortified himself very strongly after their manner in an island or crannoge within Lough Lane, standing within the county of Roscommon and on the borders of that country called Costelloghe. A few days ago, as opportunity and time served me, I drew a force on the sudden one night and laid siege to the island before day, and so continued seven days, restraining them from sending any forth or receiving any in, and in the meantime I had caused divers boats from Athlone and a couple of great iron pieces to be brought against the island, and on the seventh day we took the island, without hurt to any on our side, save my brother John, who got a bullet-wound in the back. When our men entered the island there was found within it 26 persons, whereof 7 were Dualtagh's sons and daughters; but himself and 18 others, seeking to save themselves by swimming, and in their cot to recover the wood next the shore, were for the most part drowned. Some report that Dualtagh was drowned, but the truth is not known. It was scarce daylight, and the weather was foggy when they betook themselves to flight. The Irishry held that place as a thing invincible."--Sir R. Bingham to Burghley, Dec. 16th, 1590.

In addition to the historical evidence we have that of the relics found on many of these crannogs, which includes iron pots, guns, leaden bullets, coins, etc. Thus associated with two crannogs in Lough Annagh were an iron cuirass, matchlock guns, pistols, antique keys, spurs, various implements of iron, a bronze ladle, bronze spear-head, etc. (B. 149, p. 156.)

To the literary researches of the late Dr. J. Robertson we are indebted for equally explicit historical notices regarding the Scottish crannogs:--"Among the more remarkable of the Scottish crannogs is that in the Loch of Forfar, which bears the name of St. Margaret, the Queen of King Malcolm Canmore, who died in 1097. It is chiefly natural, but has been strengthened by piles and stones, and the care taken to preserve this artificial barrier is attested by a record of the year 1508. Another crannoge--that of Lochindorb, in Moray--was visited by King Edward I. of England in 1303, about which time it was fortified by a castle of such mark that, in 1336, King Edward III. of England led an army to its relief through the mountain passes of Athol and Badenoch. A third crannoge--that of Loch Cannor or Kinord, in Aberdeenshire--appears in history in 1335, had King James IV. for its guest in 1506, and continued to be a place of strength until 1648, when the Estates of Parliament ordered its fortifications to be destroyed. It has an area of about an acre, and owes little or nothing to art beyond a rampart of stones and a row of piles. In the same lake there is another and much smaller crannoge, which is wholly artificial. Forty years after the dismantling of the crannoge of Loch Cannor, the crannoge of Loch-an-Eilan, in Strathspey, is spoken of as 'useful to the country in times of troubles or wars, for the people put in their goods and children here, and it is easily defended.' Canoes hollowed out of the trunks of oaks have been found, as well beside the Scotch as beside the Irish crannoges. Bronze (brass) vessels, apparently for kitchen purposes (=Fig. 179=), are also of frequent occurrence, but do not seem to be of a very ancient type. Deers' horns, boars' tusks, and the bones of domestic animals, have been discovered; and in one instance a stone-hammer, and in another what seem to be pieces for some such game as draughts or backgammon, have been dug up" (=Fig. 180=).

"Before the recent drainage of the Loch of Leys--or the Loch of Banchory, as it was called of old--the loch covered about 140 acres, but, at some earlier date, had been four or five times as large. It had one small island, long known to be artificial, oval in shape, measuring nearly 200 feet in length by about 100 in breadth, elevated about 10 feet above the bottom of the loch, and distant about 100 yards from the nearest point of the mainland. What was discovered as to the structure of this islet will be best given in the words of the gentleman, of whose estate it is a part, Sir James Horn Burnett, of Crathes. 'Digging at the Loch of Leys renewed. Took out two oak trees laid along the bottom of the lake, one 5 feet in circumference and 9 feet long; the other shorter. It is plain that the foundation of the island has been of oak and birch trees laid alternately, and filled up with earth and stones. The bark was quite fresh on the trees. The island is surrounded by oak piles which now project 2 or 3 feet above ground. They have evidently been driven in to protect the island from the action of water.' Below the surface were found the bones and antlers of a red deer of great size, kitchen vessels of bronze (brass) (=Figs. 181= and =182=), a millstone (taking the place of the quern in the Irish crannogs), a small canoe, and a rude, flat-bottomed boat about 9 feet long, made, as in Ireland and Switzerland, from one piece of oak. The surface of the crannog was occupied by a strong substantial building (=Fig. 183=). This has latterly been known by the name of the Castle of Leys, and tradition, or conjecture, speaks of it as a fortalice, from which the Wauchopes were driven during the Bruces' wars, adding that it was the seat of the Burnetts until the middle of the sixteenth century, when they built the present castle of Crathes. A grant of King Robert I. to the ancestors of the Burnetts includes _lacum de Banchory cum insula ejusdem_. The island again appears in record in the years 1619 and 1654 and 1664, under the name of 'The Isle of the Loch of Banchory.'"

That Scottish lake-dwellings were known by the same name, _crannog_, as the Irish, Dr. Robertson adduces the following extract from the Register of the Privy Council to show:--

"Instructions to Andro bischop of the Yllis, Andro lord Steuart of Vchiltrie, and James lord of Bewlie, comptroller, etc.... That the haill houssis of defence, strongholdis and _cranokis_ in the Yllis perteining to thame and their foirsaidis sal be delyverit to his Maiestie and sic as his Heynes sall appoint to ressave the same to be vsit at his Maiesty's pleasour, etc., 14 Aprilis, 1608."

While the comparative late occupancy of the crannogs in both countries is, therefore, unquestionable, their early origin is enveloped in the deepest mystery. Was the system an indigenous invention--the result of circumscribed local exigencies--or derived from foreign sources? and when was it founded or introduced? are questions that have elicited responses of different characters. Sir W. R. Wilde, undoubtedly one of the foremost authorities on Irish crannogs, assigns them to the Iron Age. "Certainly," says he, "the evidences derived from the antiquities found in ours, and which are chiefly of iron, refer them to a much later period than the Swiss; while we do not find any flint arrows or stone celts, and but very few bronze weapons, in our crannogs. Moreover, we have positive documentary evidence of the occupation of many of these fortresses in the time of Elizabeth, and some even later." (B. 24, p. 152.) Mr. G. H. Kinahan, on the other hand, thus formulates his opinion in a short article contributed to Keller's book (B. 119, 2nd ed., p. 654):--"Of the time when the crannogs were first built there is no known record, but that they must have been inhabited at an early period is evident, as antiquities belonging to the Stone Age are found in them. Some were in use up to modern times, Crannough Macknavin, county Galway, having been destroyed in A.D. 1610, by the English, while Bally-na-huish Castle was inhabited fifty years ago. Some crannogs seem to have been continuously occupied until they were finally abandoned, while others were deserted for longer or shorter periods. In Shore Island, Lough Rea, County Galway, there is a lacustrine accumulation over 3 feet thick, marking the time that elapsed between two occupations."

That objects supposed to be typical of the Stone and Bronze Ages have been found on many of the Irish crannogs there can be no doubt at all. For example, among the remains described by Mr. Shirley from the crannogs of MacMahon's country are stone celts, arrow-heads of flint and bronze, three looped celts of bronze, etc.; but these were associated with many iron objects of comparatively modern manufacture, such as a gun-barrel, pistol-lock, ploughshares of iron, parts of harps, and spinning-wheels, etc., etc.