In 1957 two local youths,
Johnnie Fyfe, Killegar, and John Spotten,
Drummercross, discovered a wooden boat lying
in about 180 cm of water in the mud on the bottom of this lake.
They broke pieces off them and brought them for
me to see. I recognised that the boat might be very ancient and
notified the National Museum who sent an expert to
the site. He confirmed that the find was a pre-historic canoe.
I hoped the museum would
be able to mount an expedition to raise the boat intact, but the
expert informed me that
neither the money nor the manpower were available. He downgraded
the importance of the find by saying the
location of many other such canoes was known. In view of this
complete lack of interest, the two youths, unknown to
me, subsequently dived repeatedly on the site and brought up any
parts of the canoe (probably about 50%) that were
not buried in the mud. These quickly disintegrated.
The site of the find,
in the eastern corner of the lake, about 60m offshore, was close
beside two positions in the lake
where (as I had long known) the depth of the water is,
in both cases, much less than would be expected: about 75 cm.
instead of 175 cm. The proximity of the dug-out canoe led me to
wonder whether this might indicate that crannogs
had existed there. On examination, I found that the bottom for
about 4 m. around these two points, which are some
17 m. apart, is mostly covered with quite large round stones instead
of the mud that would be expected.
Some ten years later,
I was approached by a Garda frogman who wanted to know if there
was any local area that it
might be of interest for him to examine using scuba equipment
whilst he was on leave. I told him about the foregoing.
The guard (who has since died) carried out a series of
dives in the course of which he located and brought ashore,
an exceptionally fine saddle quern, which is still in my possession.
This, of course, proved conclusively that the two
sites had been crannóga. During a recent investigation,
I located another saddle quern on one of the sites, and two or
three probable hearth stones. These are lying in about 75 cm of
water and could be clearly seen from the boat I was
using. They have not been disturbed.
Saddle querns were used
(for grinding corn) until the Celts arrived and introduced
the rotary quern, which soon
replaced the earlier, less efficient 'technology'. This proves
that the crannóga, unusually, were pre-celtic, and also
that grain was already being grown by 'the first Killagarites'.
The sites are in the townlands of Killegar,
about 150 m from Killegar House.
This article by Lord Kilbracken
is from "Carrigallen Parish-A History."
"Carrigallen Parish-A
History."1996, Design inc.
© Ronan Ward Design
2003. All Rights Reserved.