What is recorded here

Kinahan found Ash Island in 1863, a small circular crannog in Lough Rea paved with flat stones and ringed by hidden ash logs. He cut through the eastern edge to reveal a wicker wall, scattered bones and hazel nuts, proving the water had once held a lived-in room rather than an empty rock.

Within the S sector of Lough Rea, c. 75m from the shoreline to the S and W. The surface of this small roughly circular island (diam. c. 20m) was covered with flat stones when inspected by Kinahan (1861-4, 425-6) in 1863 and they extended below the water level around its E and W sides. Short spurs extended off it to the N and SW. A number of parallel logs of round ash timber were visible below the water at NE and E and oak piles were noted at NW and NE. Kinahan (ibid., 426) carried out an excavation across the E side of the island and found numerous bones, broken and whole hazel nuts, two hones and an E-W running wicker wall. A dive in the late 1990s revealed traces of posts from the W to the NW of the crannog (information from K. McDonald). (Wood-Martin 1886, 225, 228-9) Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG Date of upload: 7 January 2020

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