Crannogs by the Gaelic Elite

¶ … Crannogs by the Gaelic Elite in High Medieval Ireland

The objective of this work is to examine the literature relating to the few deserted earthworks in Ireland and to ascertain whether this means that nucleated settlements did not occur at manorial centers in Anglo-Norman dominated parts of high medieval Ireland.

The work of Kieran D. O'Conor entitled: "The Morphology of Gaelic Lordly Sites in North Connacht" relates that to the present "very little detailed archaeological work has been carried out...on the settlement, society, landscape, economy and material culture of these Irish-dominated parts of medieval Ireland..." And according to O'Conor, the political and cultural "area of Gaelic domination..." grew notably during the fourteenth century since much of the Anglo-Norman colony in Ireland "disintegrated due to various pressures." (nd) Archaeologists have failed to examine medieval Gaelic Ireland comprehensively in the field and through conducting analysis of the landscape. There are reported by O'Conor to be various reasons for this. It is apparent from "the lack of documents, which might otherwise provide the place-names of habitations" for archaeologists to either identify and locate medieval Gaelic secular settlement sites located in the landscape in modern times. Particularly the early medieval settlement forms "such as crannogs, at least some cashels and possibly ringforts..." were used in Gaelic-dominated areas of both high and late medieval Ireland. In order for the fieldworker to recognize settlement sites which were occupied in the early medieval times required is some type of excavation or documentation. The recognition of habitation sites of the Irish and most particularly those from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries has greatly impeded the study of archeological remains of medieval Gaelic Ireland. There have been only two studies published concerning the study of Gaelic-occupied tower houses and this "underlines another reason as to why so little archaeological work has been carried out on high and late medieval Gaelic society." (O'Conor, nd) O'Conor states that the Gaelic lordships were "essentially rural entities, generally located in the western half of the country and economically marginal areas of eastern Ireland." (O'Conor, nd)

I. CRANNOGS

O'Conor states that crannogs were utilized by Gaelic lords as fortresses on into and following the twelfth century through to the seventeenth century." (O'Conor, nd) Differentiation of the crannogs that were occupied during early medieval times from crannogs of the high and late medieval periods have proven difficult for the field archaeologist particularly when no recourse exist in examination through excavation f the timbers that have been preserved at the sites to be dendrochronologically dated. O'Conor states that historical sources are useful in making identification of the crannogs that were used following the arrival of the Anglo-Normans through the seventeenth century. O'Conor states for example that a crannog in north Connacht is "...directly referred to on what appears to be a Kilglass Lough, Co. Roscommon, in the mid-thirteenth century." (O'Conor, nd) Additionally, the MacRannel crannog of Claelough located in south Leitrim was mentioned in 1247. Furthermore, the term 'inis' meaning 'island' "as used in the various annals, mostly but not always implies a crannog." (O'Conor, nd)

O'Conor also states the 'island' of Lough Cairrgin, "identified as Ardakillen Lough...are mentioned on a number of occasions in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as well as in later periods. Six crannogs can be seen on or around this lake today." (O'Conor, nd) it is related by O'Conor that one of these six crannogs has revealed evidence of both high and late medieval occupation. Additionally located in the dried-out lake near the town of modern day Roscommon, and in the townland of Loughnaneane is a crannog known to be a fortress of importance for the greater part of the thirteenth century. O'Conor states that the lack of detailed record for medieval Gaelic society indicates that "these surviving annalistic references to the high medieval usage of crannogs are important and suggest that this monument-type was a relatively common settlement form across north Connacht and elsewhere in Lakeland Ireland during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as well as in later centuries." (O'Conor, nd)

There have been crannogs identified in Roscommon and south Sligo that from all appearances were occupied during the high and late periods in medieval time. One example stated by O'Conor is the "foundations of a small domestic house of mortared stone" which is visible on a crannog on Lough Naincha..." (O'Conor, nd) the mortared stones of this wall indicates that it was a high or late medieval structure. Furthermore, findings of a 'ring-brooch or thirteenth or fourteenth-century' date was discovered through use of a metal detector. A crannog, located at the southern end of Lough O'Flynn has been found and another small stone house is located at this site as well as the "remains of three lines of plank-build palisades around its edges." (O'Conor nd) a moated site is also located nearby indicating that this site was occupied through the entirety of the medieval period and suggesting that the monument was used in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries..." Crannogs with structures located nearby on land appear to indicate that these were some type of administrative buildings or stables of the owners and dwellers of crannogs.

The work of Niall Brady and Kieran O'Conor entitled: "The Medieval Usage of Crannogs in Ireland" states that crannogs are appreciated as a tradition in Ireland and are lake dwellings described as "substantial...[possessing]...high status...on manmade islands..." utilized prior to c. 1100 AD. In recent times, the view has altered and an argument posited for "their continued usage and indeed construction during the period after 1100, when much of Ireland was under the central authority of the Angevin crown." (Brady and O'Conor, nd)

Key sites examined in the study reported by Brady and O'Conor include the following: (1) Island MacHugh in Co. Tyrone; (2) Cro Inis, Co. Westmeath; (3) Ballywillin, Co. Longford; and (4) Ardakillen, Co. Roscommon. ((Brady and O'Conor, nd) it is stated that for all of these sites that identified has been made of pre-1100 AD activity and that "such sites are not exclusive to the traditional Gaelic areas of later medieval Ireland, and occur within the Anglo-Norman colonial zone as well." ((Brady and O'Conor, nd) the argument stated in the work of Brady and O'Conor specifically is that "the acceptance of such evidence as an integral part of the later medieval material culture of Ireland will in turn present a situation where scholars can begin to understand more clearly and more constructively the ways in which Gaelic lordship was manifested and displayed." (Brady and O'Conor, nd)

II. FAILURE to EXAMINE and RESEARCH CRANNOGS EXISTS

Crannogs are very little discussed in scholarly discussions surrounding high and late medieval Gaelic Ireland. There is a tendency of at least one school or historical thought in the past century which viewed high medieval Ireland, prior to and following 1169 as "conservative, insular, chaotic, tribal and backward, far removed from the contemporary, and so-called feudal..." And from this view the Anglo-Norman arrival in Ireland was of "primary importance to the development of society on the island..." In the last twelfth century. In other words, from this view the domination of Ireland by England beginning in 1169 and for the following eight centuries is seen as a good and positive impact as it brought with it "such things as prosperity, common law, centralized government and a better infrastructure." (Brady and O'Conor, nd) Yet another school of though - "in origin really a nationalist one..." holds that the differences between Gaelic Ireland and the Anglo-Normans "have been widely exaggerated." (Brady and O'Conor, nd)

Brady and O'Conor relate an important fact in their study and that fact concerns the general acceptance of archaeologists and settlement historians, either implicitly or explicitly, that the settlement forms and material culture used by a particular group will in some way reflect the belief-systems ideology and stage of social and economic development current in that society." (Brady and O'Conor, nd) so argued by one school of thought is that "certain iconic settlement forms, in particular and especially the castle should have existed in the landscape of high medieval Gaelic Ireland, both before and after 1169, as a physical expression of the modernizing trends in native Irish society at that time." (Brady and O'Conor, nd) This discussion however, can be taken even further in that "certain Irish scholars have failed to discuss the high medieval and indeed late medieval usage of crannogs meaningfully, and have instead stuck rigidly to the belief that Gaelic lords commonly and regularly built and occupied castles during the former period, despite overwhelming field evidence to the contrary." (Brady and O'Conor, nd)

The castle has become "a physical symbol to these scholars of the non-insular and, indeed the cosmopolitan nature of high medieval Gaelic Ireland. Its presence demonstrates how Gaelic Irish society during this period was developing along general west European and especially 'Angevin lines, and was not a conservative backwater." (Brady and O'Conor, nd) the avoidance of meaningfully examining the use of crannogs is to "accept that crannogs were a regular choice of habitation site by Gaelic lords would be an admittance that high mediaeval Gaelic lords would be an admittance that high medieval Gaelic Irish society had conservative and archaic features, and was in fact less developed and different to contemporary Anglo-Norman Ireland, England and Western Europe."

Examples of the mention of the use of the 'crannog' in Lough Laoghaire is stated by Brady and O'Conor to be referenced directly in the Annals of Ulster in 1436. These annals are "contemporary Gaelic records of the high profile events that occurred in Ireland, and such mention carries with it an automatic association of status and dramatic event." (Brady and O'Conor, nd)

III. O'SULLIVAN (1998)

Aidan O'Sullivan writes in the work entitled: "The Archaeology of Lake Settlement in Ireland" (1998) that in the Late Middle Ages...the Gaelic Irish experienced a revival in military power, giving rise to what is commonly known as the 'Gaelic Resurgence'" which was a time when raids increased on the English settlements which were richer and there was a "state of endemic warfare across the country." (O'Sullivan, 1998) Cultural and military renewal among the Gaelic Irish were drivers of the 'Resurgence' as well as the "continued Gaelicization of the Anglo-Norman Lords (the Gaill) and a discernible economic decline in both the Gaelic Irish economic landscape and in the English settlements of the Pale and elsewhere." (O'Sullivan, 1998) the landscape in Ireland was structured primarily around a "dispersed settlement pattern...prior to the coming of the Anglo-Normans..." (O'Sullivan, 1998)

O'Sullivan writes that the countryside while "intensively managed with farmsteads, field systems and routways..." The people in this area lived in "ringforts and cashels, crannogs, royal sites, monastic or church enclosures, and other types of dispersed settlement." (O'Sullivan, 1998) Towns were located at ports and some "monastic sites...may have served as towns."(O'Sullivan, 1998) the manors and granges of Anglo-Normans were important factors in the settled landscape. The manorial farms which were "centered around a manor house and a church" were inhabited by English peasant farmers. It is believed that the Anglo-Norman farms were most likely "worked by Irish tenants, who lived away from the manor house and the church, and therefore nucleated settlements may have been scarcer there." (O'Sullivan, 1998) it is likely therefore that the norm on the borders of the Anglo-Norman territory were dispersed settlements...with farmsteads scattered through the landscape such as mottes and ringwork castles." (O'Sullivan, 1998)

There is still much to be understood about the nature of Gaelic Irish settlements during the medieval and late medieval times however, it is apparent that both ringforts and crannogs were used as a site for those in the upper classes of that society with the towerhouses used a residences by the Gaelic Irish societies upper classes beginning in the "...fifteenth century onwards." (O'Sullivan, 1998) it is stated that the Gaelic Irish of west Ulster were "by the late medieval period...moving continuously through the countryside with their cattle herds and cruchs, in a nomadic settlement system..." And "riverine water-meadows and lakeshore grasslands were seen as valuable, self-renewing resources by farmers." (O'Sullivan, 1998)

O'Sullivan states that a "range of archeological and historical evidence for lake settlement in the medieval period and the late medieval period." (O'Sullivan, 1998) References in historical literature further give indications that "crannogs and islands were used as permanent settlements and as temporary fortifications by the Gaelic Irish in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries." (O'Sullivan, 1998) the military tactics of the Gaelic Irish were such that natural defensive features were used such as those of "lakes, islands, woodlands and bogs." (O'Sullivan, 1998) O'Sullivan states that there is sound archaeological as well as historical evidence that crannogs were occupied as dwellings during the medieval and late medieval periods.