Forts of dry-wall masonry, which are, undoubtedly, the more ancient, are very numerous in the south-west of Ireland.  It is probable that similar erections existed throughout the country at a former period, and that their preservation is attributable to the remoteness of the district.  The most perfect of these ancient habitations is that of Staigue Fort, near Derryquin Castle, Kenmare.  This fort has an internal diameter of eighty-eight feet.  The masonry is composed of flat-bedded stones of the slate rock of the country, which show every appearance of being quarried, or carefully broken from larger blocks.  There is no appearance of dressed work in the construction; but the slate would not admit of this, as it splinters away under the slightest blow.  Still the building is an admirable example of constructive masonry; it is almost impossible to dislodge any fragment from off the filling stones from the face of the wall.  A competent authority has pronounced that these structures cannot be equalled by any dry masonry elsewhere met with in the country, nor by any masonry of the kind erected in the present day.[245] Some small stone buildings are also extant in this part of Ireland, but it is doubtful whether they were used for ecclesiastical or domestic purposes.  The crannoge was another kind of habitation, and one evidently much used, and evincing no ordinary skill in its construction.  From the remains found in these island habitations, we may form a clear idea of the customs and civilization of their inmates:  their food is indicated by the animal remains, which consist of several varieties of oxen, deer, goats, and sheep; the implements of cookery remain, even to the knife, and the blocks of stone blackened from long use as fire-places; the arrows, which served for war or chase, are found in abundance; the personal ornaments evidence the taste of the wearers, and the skill of the artist; while the canoe, usually of solid oak, and carefully hidden away, tells its own tale how entrance and exit were effected.  One of the earliest crannoges which was discovered and examined in modern times, was that of Lagere, near Dunshaughlin, county Meath.  It is remarkable that Loch Gabhair is said to have been one of the nine lakes which burst forth in Ireland, A.M. 3581.  The destruction of this crannoge is recorded by the Four Masters, A.D. 933, giving evidence that it was occupied up to that period.  In 1246 there is a record of the escape of Turlough O’Connor from a crannoge, after he had drowned his keepers; from which it would appear such structures might be used for prisons, and, probably, would be specially convenient for the detention of hostages.  In 1560 we read that Teigue O’Rourke was drowned as he was going across a lake to sleep in a crannoge; and even so late as the sixteenth century, crannoges were declared to be the universal system of defence in the north of Ireland.

[Illustration:  CELT.]