Scotland: Crannogs

When we decided to visit Scotland I remembered an article I read in Archaeology Magazine about the work done to find evidence of earlier peoples in Scotland who lived out over the water in houses called crannogs.

My search for the article now only brings up these.

Here is an article in the BBC and the website for the centre.

The Scottish Crannog Centre has used the techniques of the 3rd millennium BC to recreate a crannog dwelling on Loch Tay where underwater archaeologists found evidence of them.

The walkway to the dwelling would have been pulled up at night.  

Loch Tay is a beauty with this scene across the way.

Dug out canoes.  To build the crannog these Iron Age  people would have hauled the timbers by the boats and driven them into the clay base of the bottom of the loch without benefit of pile drivers.

Our visit to the Crannog Centre included a visit to the re-created crannog.  There were 18 crannogs discovered in Loch Tay.  Some appear as islands.

In the center of the dwelling was the fireplace surrounded by rocks.  Considering that everything in the crannog was flammable I'm sure many burned down.

Our guide, dressed in Iron Age clothing showed us many of the daily tasks that now we take for granted, like making a fire.  Here he is blowing on the spark he created on the kindling.

The Scottish Crannog Center is in the village of Kenmore on the eastern end of Loch Tay.  Well worth the visit if you are intrigued by ancient history.

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