Proceedings at the Meetings of the Archaeological Institute.
November 7, 1851.
Edward Hawkins, Esq., F.R.S., Treasurer, in the Chair.
The list of members elected since the last meeting of the Institute in London, having been read, and that of presents to the library and collections of the Society, the Chairman took occasion, in opening the proceedings of another session, to congratulate the Society upon the success which had attended the Annual Meeting, held at Bristol, since they had last assembled in London,—the valuable communications there received, and the extension of friendly relations between the Institute and the kindred Societies and Archaeologists of the west. The "Salisbury Volume," of which the publication had been undertaken by Mr. Bell, had been announced as ready for delivery in the present week, and he (the Treasurer) anticipated that the Bristol Transactions, the sixth volume of the Annual Series, would prove not less acceptable to the Society at large, than any of the Memorials of their previous meetings; and that, through the present arrangements, its completion would be more promptly effected. In the absence of their Vice-President, the Earl of Enniskillen, he had been requested by that nobleman to lay before the meeting an account of recent discoveries, in Ireland, of certain insular strongholds of the class termed crannoges, to which the attention of the Society had been called by Mr. Evelyn Shirley, in a communication to the meeting at Winchester, subsequently printed in the Journal.[1] These curious ancient dwellings are also described in his "Account of the Dominion of Farney," (p. 93.) Mr. Hawkins then read a letter addressed to Lord Enniskillen, by Mr. D. H. Kelly, describing a crannog lately examined during certain operations for the drainage of the county Roscommon.
This insulated site was found in the lake Clonfinlough, it was evidently artificial, being raised on piles of oak, many of which bear the marks of fire. There is a triple stockade of timber forming a circular enclosure of piles compacted by means of rough logs of oak fixed between them horizontally; within this fence, or rudely constructed coffer-dam, appears a layer of oak trees laid so as to meet in the centre, like the spokes of a wheel, and forming a perfect platform. On the western side were laid great logs fixed parallel to each other, and supporting others laid across them, so as to form a jetty, or landing-place: whilst outside the stockades there are piles driven without any regularity, and amongst these the greater part of the curious objects here collected had been found. On the central platform the little island appears to have been formed, measuring about 128 feet by 121 feet. A trench having been opened, there appeared about 7 inches under the surface, a regular well laid pavement of boulders, which was broken through with difficulty. Under this was a stratum of rich black earth, about 8 inches deep, and then a layer of clay and burnt
