Craggaunowen

The Craggaunowen Project is an award winning archaeological open air museum centred around a 16th Century Towerhouse in County Clare Ireland. The park, started by John Hunt, is set in 50 acres of idyllic woodland with a picturesque lake and is host to several examples of early historic dwelling places. The Park interprets several features commonly found in the Irish archaeological landscape, by the recreation of several homesteads and monuments. The primary features are a Crannóg (A type of man made island dwelling place that came into being in the Bronze Age with some showing usage through to 17th Century. Their main usage being around the 7th Century); a Ring Fort (These also show evidence of having similar period coverage to the Crannógs); a replica Fulachta Fia (Bronze Age cooking and/or industrial site); a Dolmen (Neolithic Portal tomb) and Standing Stone. The visitor site is also home to 'The Brendan', a reconstruction of a leather hulled boat that is reputed to have been sailed by Saint Brendan from Ireland to Newfoundland in Canada in the Mid 6th Century AD. The 'Brendan' reconstruction made the same journey in the Mid '70's.