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| Lough Gur |
Our next series of sites were all at a place called Lough Gur. This is, of course, after we stopped for lunch, although most of us just awkwardly ate our packed lunches in a pub and didn't order anything. The most interesting thing about Lough Gur, in my opinion, is that it has been continuously used for settlement from the Neolithic to the Medieval (although there was a possible gap during the Iron Age). Thus at this site there are remains of Neolithic houses as well as two castles. It isn't hard to see why Lough Gur would be an ideal place. Besides its beauty, the ground is fertile and the lake is rich with fish and water birds.
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| If You Look Carefully You Can See Both Cashels |
On top of one of the hills are the remains of two cashels. We only went to one of them as they are not prehistoric sites so our professor didn't want us to spend too much time on them. I do kinda wish we'd seen the other site because there was once a Viking silver hoard there, which is something we actually just talked about in my other archaeology class.
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| I Kinda Want to Live on a Crannog |
Besides for sustenance, the lake also provided an opportunity for a relatively unique type of settlement. Crannogs are small artificially created islands. The ones at Lough Gur I believe are thought to be prehistoric. I find it interesting that these are either believed to be defensive sites as being in the water would cause attackers to have to bottle neck onto the site or religious as there is evidence of ritual deposition.
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