A crannog was discovered in this county during the working of the Arterial Drainage Commissioners. Site unidentified.
[Illustration: Fig. 214.--Spear-head of Bronze from Lough Gur. One-half real size.
Fig. 215. Ferrule, showing Gold Ornamentation. Full size.]
_Lough Gur._--_Ante_, pp. 6, 25-6, 83, 150, 156, &c. There was found here a remarkably fine bronze spear-head, now in the collection of General A. Pitt Rivers, F. R. S. The lower part of its socket was ornamented with gold (see figs. 214 and 215). Homer more than once mentions the gold ring, or ferrule, around the spear-head of Hector. The two following relics--also from Lough Gur--may be seen in the British Museum:--(1) A moiety of a stone mould for casting spear-heads and other pointed objects of various sizes: “it is a four-sided prism, six and a-half inches long, and two and a half inches broad at one end of each face, and one and three-quarter inches at the other. A second similar prism would, it has been observed, give four perfect moulds for casting spear-heads slightly varying in form, but in each case provided with side-loops. These loops are, as usual, semicircular in form on the mould, and were no doubt destined to be flattened in the usual manner by a subsequent process of hammering. There is one special feature in this mould, viz., that at the base of the blade there is a transverse notch in the stone, evidently destined to receive a small pin which would serve to keep the core for the socket in its proper position. There is a similar transverse notch in one of the smaller moulds for the pointed objects”[241] (fig. 216). (2) An iron sword, which is ornamented on the blade thus, [Illustration]. The cross-like form does not necessarily denote that the weapon belongs to the Christian era, for an almost similar symbol [Illustration] appears in an ancient Mexican MS. now in the Belfast Museum.[242]
[Illustration: Fig. 216.--Stone Mould for casting weapons, from Lough Gur.]
_Effernan._--In the year 1873, a gentleman desirous to provide his residence with an ample supply of water, decided on bringing it down from this lake, situated at a distance of about two miles, and at a level of three hundred feet above his house. Before a syphon could be placed in working order, it was necessary to reduce the height of the water much below its ordinary summer level, which was effected by clearing and deepening the outlet. When making the cutting the labourers, at about six feet below the surface, came upon a densely-intertwined layer of roots of a pine forest; the trees had evidently attained maturity in the position in which they were found, and they extended also under the water. The forest must have been very ancient, as no lake could have been formed there at the time of its existence. The roots were in the exact position in which the trees grew, and these, with the direction to which their stumps pointed, seemed to indicate that, while the present prevailing wind is the S.W., it must then have been the N.W. Hills and valleys guide the aerial currents, and some convulsion of the earth’s crust may have altered these, and formed the present lake. When, by drainage, the water had been reduced nine feet, there was laid bare a low neck of land stretching into the lake, its outer end being highest. Along this neck of land ran, in irregular order, a row of posts, from four to six inches in diameter, and which, in general, only just topped the ground. At the extremity of the promontory was an unmistakable crannog, circular in form, and with wooden piles surrounding the exterior; the floor was of stone; and one large flag--seemingly the fireplace--took up the greater part of the interior space. Unfortunately, no one specially interested about lake dwellings was at the time aware of this discovery, and the syphon being completed, crannog and causeway became once more submerged.[243]