ABSTRACT
In the Middle Ages, people built and lived on small artificial islands in lakes, constructed of stone, earth, and timber. In the early medieval period, these islands were often referred to in saints’ Lives, annals, and sagas using the words inis or oileán, perhaps signifying that people made little distinction between such places and natural islets. By the midthirteenth century, the word crannóg-the word used today-began to be used in the annals. Scholars have typically defined crannogs as islands built of stone, earth, timber, and organic materials, usually circular or oval in plan and enclosed within a surrounding palisade of planks, posts, or stone walls. However, a broader definition would include those crannogs without palisades, as well as other deliberately enhanced natural islands, rocky outcrops, and mounds and rock platforms along lakeshore edges.
