Please Note--This is not the official page of the Scottish Crannog Centre-- Permission has been sought to include their name and picture. If not granted I will substitute my own photograph.

Our ‘Historic’ day out last Sunday, to the crannog in Loch Tay, almost did not take place. We were in two minds about going because of the distance (about 140 miles the round trip), the very wet and ‘dreich’ weather and the fact that we had been up since early morning watching the breaking news about the sad death of Princess Diana.

However about 10.30 we decided to go for it and set off . There is much that I could report on as we drove north,:--

1. Crieff, sacked and destroyed by the Jacobites, retreating after the Battle of Sheriffmuir (1716), 2. The drove roads, where highland cattle were driven to the Tryst market at Falkirk, 3. The bridge built over the Tay by General Wade at Aberfeldy. The only commoner to be named in the UK national anthem. 4. The 3000 year old yew tree at Fortingall. The reputed, and totally unconfirmed, birth place of Pontius Pilate.

BUT for now I will reserve all that history for a separate report and concentrate on the crannog.

The Loch Tay Crannog.

Situated near to the village of Kenmore, and next door to the National Watersports Centre, the crannog in Loch Tay is a modern building--- built accurately in the old ways of crannog building and in a loch where many other crannog sites have been discovered and are being researched.

Basically a crannog is an ancient type of dwelling house set on timber posts embedded deep into the loch floor, reinforced with stones and linked to the shore with a wooden walkway that could be destroyed in time of trouble. (See photograph) Crannogs provided a secure, pest free environment for our early Celtic ancestors and their cattle. Indeed most crannogs are built near good arable land suggesting that the builders were farmers who built crannogs as additional housing and safe havens from attack by humans or wild animals.

Crannogs are found in both Scotland and Ireland, although other types of lake dwellings exist in other parts of the world such as the Alpine Lakes, Lake Titicaca and New Zealand. As a concept, they probably date from as far back as 3,000 BC with some being used as recently as the 17thCentury.

Technically, in Scotland, they should be called crannags and not crannogs. Crannog being the Irish Gaelic and crannag being the Scottish Gaelic. Common convention has resulted in the Irish name being used. The Gaelic root crann implies wood and is no help in derivations as it is widely used for almost any wooden structure from a boat to a basket.

Ian Morrison in ‘ Landscape with Lake Dwellings’ EUP (1985) pp24-25, discussing the dating of Scottish crannogs and quoting Dixon 1981, points out that, in Loch Tay, radio carbon dating suggests times from 190 BC to 525 BC. He goes on, however to observe that " It is not unlikely that, in Scotland, the islet-building tradition extends back beyond the conventional Iron Age, into at least the Late Bronze Age".

Paradoxically, while crannogs are ubiquitous in both Scotland and Ireland, they are among the poorest studied archaeological site. This is because of their situation and the fact that underwater exploration is usually essential to uncover their story. Expensive and not an activity to everyone’s taste.

The only complete crannogs visible today are replica ones. ( Loch Tay in Scotland and Clifden in Ireland being examples) and the original crannogs are now little more than a pile of stones, timber and debris in our lochs. Some however, are not fully submerged and appear as small islands with trees or shrubs growing on them.

The distribution of Crannogs in Scotland is extensive with a concentration being on the west coast extending from Galloway in the south up through the Western Isles to the North of the country.

Details of the Loch Tay building.

With warnings about the wet and slippery timbers ringing in our ears we set out to walk the wooden causeway that linked the crannog to the shore, where, upon entering through the doorway, we met Duncan our guide for that day.

After explaining the history of crannogs he explained that this replica had been built and created, over a period of years, by the members of the Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology (STUA) with the help of many individuals and organisations.

As no one in living memory had ever built a crannog it was necessary to experiment in the early stages. An attempt was made to bed the posts into the loch floor using a modern pile-driver. All to no avail. Eventually it was found that by sharpening the ends of the posts and attaching a cross piece to the top, they could be driven in easily to the loch floor by screwing them in by hand. A discovery of how the original crannog builders probably achieved their aim.

Duncan pointed out the detailed construction of the conical roof. Large poles, lashed together into the basic conical shape had other, lighter, timbers tied at right angles. The whole making a spiders web like, hexagonal, pattern that not only provided stability but also could be used as a ladder to gain access to the peak. On top of this the reed thatch was expertly put into place by a professional thatcher. (See Photograph) The reeds came from the beds of a reed farm near the city of Dundee. In times gone by the reeds would have grown in the loch side margins and be gathered by the crannog dwellers themselves.

The sides of the building were built of wattle fencing made of Alder and gathered as gleanings from the forestry felling of trees. . Here the upright poles about three foot high and the thickness of two fingers had thinner sticks woven out and in. The traditional technique of hurdle (Fence) manufacture or the basic building material of wattle and daub (mud) houses.

There has, so far, been no suggestion that the early builders of crannogs had wattle and daub walls it is felt that they stuffed the walls with bracken (ferns) in the winter to cut down draughts. One innovation that Duncan introduced us to was the concept of crannog ‘double glazing’. The upright poles forming the sides of the crannog had wattle coverings on both the outside and the inside. The resulting hollow was stuffed full of bracken and made for extremely efficient insulation. In the summer, of course, the bracken was simply thrown away and the cooling breeze allowed to waft through the structure.

The floor itself was built from thin logs simply lashed together. The whole being covered by more bracken. Inner walls were also built from wattle hurdles lashed to poles and the inhabitants had sleeping areas, with piles of skins for warmth and comfort, space for their animals and communal areas for cooking. In the centre of the crannog sits the fireplace. Layers of clay are built up over time hardening as it dries out. These layers can be up to six or eight inches high depending how long the crannog has been occupied and the fire simply burns on top providing both cooking facilities and heat. Smoke simply dissipates through the structure.

Other features of the lives of crannog dwellers that are featured at the centre are 1. the making of fire using a rod, cup and bow. 2. The use of a lathe, for turning wood, made from a springy sapling. 3. The weaving of cloth on a loom made from branches and weighted down with stones. (See Photograph )

This is a remarkable achievement and all thanks are due to Dr Nicholas Dixon and all who are involved in the venture.

And so with the inevitable cup of coffee in the nearby coffee shop we ended what we considered to be one of our most interesting and unusual ‘historic’ days out.