Switch Island

Eleven metres long and barely four wide, it is a crannog built on a natural reef in Lough Rea, not a product of drifting sand or drowned earth. People stacked timber, peat and stone above that hidden foundation, then lived beside or upon the result while water closed the gap between islands. Trees have since taken back the edges, smoothing the made shape until it looks ordinary. The lough keeps several of these small places, which suggests repeated choice rather than a single desperate decision.