5th Class History Project 2005
Cromeen
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Cromeen
The house
‘Cromeen’ in Dromiskin was built by Reverend Joseph
Chamney for his daughters, Zoe and Isa,
retired missionaries from India. The
lands of ‘Cromeen’ adjoin those of ‘Ardronan’, where Rev. Chamney lived.
‘Cromeen,’ designed at the turn of the century, has a colonial flavour with
its veranda and distinctive roof. The
Chamney sisters were very popular in the village and were famous for herbal
remedies and medicines, and tended both Catholic and Protestant members of the
community.
The
gardener of the Chamney sisters went to the west side of ‘Cromeen’ to design
and develop a rose garden, but his spade hit a large flat stone over and above
the entrance to an underground
man-made tunnel. He confirmed that
it was a souterrain – built around the year 800
AD. Around 1983-84 the
Clancy children who live in it now found a rusty old cannon-ball down in the
low–lying bog area of ‘Cromeen’ land. A
‘Folacht Fia’ – an outdoor cooking pit - was discovered
at the top of the rising field, facing eastwards.
The
most interesting part of our investigation of
‘Cromeen’
was when we went down the souterrain. When
we went to interview Mrs Clancy about ‘Cromeen’, she said that we could come
back the following week and go down the souterrain.
So when we got home from school on the appointed day, we grabbed our
torches and hurried to ‘Cromeen’.
When
we arrived, Mrs Clancy was there waiting for us. She took away the gate and led
us in. When we went down, we could
feel a refreshing clean breeze on our faces.
It was damp and wet so we had to go on our hunkers.
And it was pitch dark until we switched on our flash lamps.
When we got half-way, there was a drop and we went in a different direction. After we got out, Mrs Clancy told us that there was an air vent at the end which was the cause of the breeze. The drop and the air vent were there in case the attackers tried to smoke the people out. Then we went inside to ask her some more questions. We really enjoyed learning about ‘Cromeen’, and the best part was our visit to the souterrain.