Often overlooked and usually undervalued, crannogs rank among Ireland's most interesting monuments, writes Eileen Battersby
Crannogs, among the most secretive, attractive and, as with ringforts, the most underrated of Irish monuments, may be defined as habitations built on artificially constructed islands in lakes, usually small sheltered lakes avoiding the exposed shores of larger bodies of water. The source of the word crannog is easy to identify, coming from the Irish words, crann, meaning tree, and og, young trees or, more accurately, small woods.
Timber was the main material used in the building, just as stone provided the causeway linking the crannog with the shore. Some are very near the water's edge, others are several hundred metres out of reach unless by boat. Many crannogs resemble cairns with earthen mounds. While they are deserted dwellings, as empty as a haunted house, they also retain a use.
Many a modern fisherman has been pleased to use an ancient crannog as a fishing base. It is also worth noting that it is not always easy to distinguish small natural islands from the true crannog. A meticulous new book, Crannogs, by Swedish archaeologist Christina Fredengren, director of the Crannog Research Programme, approaches the origins, purposes and philosophical symbolism of these monuments with intense scholarship based on field work, as well as her own forceful opinions, some jargon and, at times, an imaginative energy that leaves no doubts as to the passion she feels for her subject.
Her thesis, written in English, develops in the form of an argument, pitching her own interpretations - based on field work carried out largely on the area around Lough Gara, which straddles counties Sligo and Roscommon - against those of other specialists, most particularly Aidan O'Sullivan, author of The Archaeology of Lake Settlement in Ireland (Discovery Programme, 1998), and Chris Lynn. She does give extensive coverage to the pioneering mid 19th-century antiquarians who first explored these monuments, and she then follows research up to the present.
But be advised: Fredengren, economist turned archaeologist, is independent, even radical, at times personal, and her study, which reads as a sociological investigation cum manifesto, is guaranteed to irritate and provoke. It will also interest readers because of the amount of technical material included in the text, as well as the accompanying CD ROM featuring appendices of sites surveyed and excavation details. But most statements are qualified and cross referenced and, in truth, it makes for tough reading.
"This book" she writes in the introduction, "is not about natural islands, nor is it really about crannogs - these small man-made islands. It is about the people who have used and lived on these crannogs over time . . . While crannogs in most cases have been understood in utilitarian terms as defended settlements and workshops for the wealthier parts of society, or as fishing platforms, this is not the whole story. I am interested in learning more about them than this."
She then explains her purpose, which is to "explore why island-building made sense to people at different times. I also want to consider how the use of islands affects the way people perceive themselves and their landscapes, in line with much contemporary interpretative archaeology, and how people have drawn on the landscape to create and maintain long-term social institutions as well as to bring about change."
A distribution map, which appears on page five, expresses far more eloquently than words the density of crannogs in a cluster across the north-west and the drumlin belt, while also giving due prominence to key sites such as Moynagh Lough and Lagore in Co Meath, Newtownlow and Ballinderry No 1in Co Westmeath and Ballinderry No 2 just over the county boundary in Co Offaly.
Fredengren describes archaeologists as people "who write about society"; it is an important observation. The role of archaeologists as forensic detectives capable of reconstructing not only the past but also how and why human life developed and was lived in a specific time context is too often reduced to an interest in structures and objects. Anyone reading this new book would have to feel its author is passionately committed to her subject.
However, she continues, "archaeology as a subject cannot avoid reflection on its role in the modernisation process. Our role, as its interpreters, is to create meaningful narratives about the past, which will allow us to see the values of re-enchanting the world. This enables people to live in a meaningful relationship with their surroundings and to close some of the Cartesian gaps that had begun to open before this, even in Plato's work."
She makes clear that she believes the challenge for archaeology in the post modern world "is to try to re-enchant the places and events that through an ongoing commodification are constantly losing meaning, and the test is to do this without trivialising the narratives."
Should theorising such as this leave one cold, as it did me, why not concentrate instead on the crannogs themselves? These are beautiful monuments promising much, as the waterlogged, wetland conditions have proved effective in preserving organic remains and artefacts for examination, and most particularly for accurate dating of the sites. They have also been affected by drainage schemes.
Of a possible 2,000 crannogs situated throughout Ireland, Fredengren points out, "not more than five have been recorded to modern excavation standards, while a larger number were examined during the 19th century". O'Sullivan, who has perhaps better evoked a sense of mystery, suggests that there may be hundreds "if not thousands" of crannogs surviving undetected and yet to be recorded in Ireland's Lakeland regions. This increases their fascination; crannogs may well remain concealed because they are still submerged by water or under marshy vegetation. They could also be buried in waterlogged peats and clays.
Although the word crannog does not appear in sources until the beginning of the 13th century, the construction of these habitations is known to have begun much earlier, while the peak period was during the sixth and seventh centuries. One of the most famous and well documented - by Frank Mitchell - is Rathinaun, Lough Gara, Co Sligo, the heart of Fredengren's researches.
According to Eamonn P. Kelly, in an essay in Irish Archaeology Illustrated (Dublin, 1991), "a structure was found which had been occupied and abandoned on three occasions. The site consisted of a platform of brushwood and peat laid down in shallow water and surrounded by wooden piles.
"During the earliest phase it appears to have been a metal working site. Clay moulds for casting bronze and characteristic Later Bronze Age objects were found associated with the phase. The second phase appears to represent a transitional period, as bronze and iron implements of both Later Bronze Age and Early Iron Age types were found together. The final phase produced a range of objects similar to those found on sites of the Early Medieval period, but which in this case the excavator believed to date to Early Iron Age."
Lough Gara is an interesting site, and is in fact divided into three lakes. It is located, as Fredengren writes, "on the boundary between two topographically distinct areas. To the south and the east are the lower lands of Roscommon, while to the north-west are the more hilly lands of Sligo.
"Each side of the lake has its own characteristics. The slopes of the mountains of Mullaghatee define the western edge of the lake. From this side there is an immediate sight of the lake, and a wide view over the boglands towards Annagh and Callow. On the opposite, eastern side of the lake is a series of hogback drumlins which block the view from the east towards the lake until one is really near the shore. Many visitors who are new to the area often get disorientated in this repetitive landscape, while one faces a mountainous landscapetowards the west, the place of the setting sun."
The water level was first lowered in 1859 through a drainage scheme intended to improve the quality of the surrounding agricultural land. It failed, and a second scheme was initiated in 1951. Although Fredengren sets out on page 23 to "follow the activities in a lake with crannogs through time", she adds, "But to understand what this lake has meant to people through the ages it is important not to restrict the study only to crannogs, but to take into account other activities that took place around the lake". This intended holistic approach, however, never quite develops.
For all the theorising, and the technical data and the modernity of her approach, Fredengren never loses sight of the past, and it is here the riches of her text will be found. "While antiquarians had recognised other monument types for what they were at an earlier stage, crannogs entered the scholarly discussion only in the 19th century." She refers to evidence of use of crannogs at the close of the Nine Year's War and as depicted on Elizabethan military maps.
It is fitting that she records two pioneering fathers of Irish archaeology, William Wilde and George Petrie, visiting the most famous crannog of all, Lagore near Dunshaughlin, Co Meath, in 1839. Believed to have been populated from the 6th to possibly the 11th century, Lagore is a special place. It was Wilde who recorded discoveries made there by labourers. Other antiquarians and archaeologists intrigued by crannogs included William Gregory Wood Martin, William Wakeman and later George Coffey.
Another famous crannog is that of Moynagh Lough, an extensive site and the subject of a 20 year excavation by John Bradley. It is believed to have been a royal dwelling and may have been inhabited continuously for two centuries. Again, it is that theme of continuous settlement that so captures the imagination. Vulnerable and yet, tough crannogs, made of timber, stone and clay and protected by water, have a story to tell.
Crannogs by Christina Fredengren is published by Wordwell, € 25