Monaghan Town Through the Ages
Example of a Crannóg Site
This is the site of Lochnacranny Crannóg, Longford Demense. There is not much remaining of the crannóg itself. You can see the patch of land in the middle of the lake, where the crannóg was located.
Copyright Sligo County Library.Example of a Crannóg Site
Copyright Sligo County Library.
Copyright Sligo County Library.
Example of a Crannóg Site
This is the site of Lochnacranny Crannóg, Longford Demense. There is not much remaining of the crannóg itself. You can see the patch of land in the middle of the lake, where the crannóg was located.
Copyright Sligo County Library.The site of Monaghan town was originally part of the ancient Gaelic kingdom of Oriel which dates to around 330 AD. Later, the MacMahon family built fortified crannógs there and largely controlled the area until the seventeenth century.
Although a part of Ulster, Monaghan was not officially included in the Ulster Plantation, which began in 1610. It was only after the failure of the rebellion against Cromwell later in the seventeenth century and the subsequent confiscations of land that some settlement by the English and the Scots took place. This was when the town began to take shape. Eventually, it became the curious sequence of streets we see today.