About the same time the crannog in Ballinderry Lough, near Moate,
county of Meath, became known, and appears to have yielded a large
quantity of bones and antiquities, together with one or two canoes.
From the number of objects now in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy, and in private collections, said to be found on this crannog,
it must have been an unusually rich repository of lake-dwelling
relics; yet, singular to relate, Sir W. Wilde dismisses the subject by
stating that he was indebted to Mr. Hayes, of Moate, for a description
of the find, together with a plan and map of the locality. On this
crannog Mr. Graves, writing as late as 1883, makes the following
remarks:--
[Illustration: =Fig. 110.=--BALLINDERRY. Inscribed Bone Pins. Real
size.]
"There was a great crannog in this lakelet, surrounded by a stockade
of oak piles. Around this and on the crannog was found an immense
quantity of the antlers of the red deer, and the bones of deer, oxen,
sheep, and other animals, which were sold as manure. A great and
varied mass of objects of an archæological nature were also found
on, in, and around the crannog, some of which found their way to the
hands of various collectors, and some, I believe, are in the Museum
of the Royal Irish Academy (=Figs. 108= and =112=), but unhappily no
record or connected account of that great crannog or its finds has
been preserved. Amongst the articles of wood which Mr. Browne secured
was a portion of an ancient harp. The pins and amulets exhibited on
the occasion referred to have since been engraved, and I now describe
them, beginning with the amulets (=Fig. 109=), which are here engraved
from photographs full size." (B. 391, p. 196.)
[Illustration: =Fig. 111.=--BALLINDERRY. Inscribed Bone Pins. Real
size.]
[Illustration: =Fig. 112.=--BALLINDERRY AND STROKESTOWN. Bone objects.
All ⅔ real size.]
It is suggested by Mr. Graves that the curious scorings on these pins
are of the nature of Ogham and Runic writing (=Figs. 110= and =111=),
but special authorities who have examined them do not support this
theory. Moreover, I doubt the genuineness of both the pins and amulets.