History
Page
Index
What
is a crannog?
Timber Crannogs
Man made islands
Dumbuck Crannog
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What
is a crannog?
Crannogs
were habitation sites constructed on small natural or man-made
islands, in lakes, rivers, or swamps.
The
earliest know crannogs date back to the late bronze age,
and the construction of crannogs was recorded in Fermanagh
as late as the 1500s. They played an important part in the
Nine Year War, as Gaelic chiefs abandoned their stone castles
and stored their military supplies in remote crannogs.
An
offshore crannog offered protection to the family inside
and could support 20-30 people and livestock!
There
were two main types of crannog: timber crannogs and man
made islands.
Timber
Crannogs
A
platform of timber was built, the horizontal timbers
were held in place by vertical timber piles, arranged
in a circle, the centre was filled with rocks, timber
etc.
The
structure would have been surrounded by a wooden palisade.
Excavations of crannogs, suggest house and out-building
similar to those constructed in ringforts.
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Made Islands |
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The
other type of crannog involved either enlarging
an existing natural island or simply making your
own island.
The
example show is from Dubh Loch near Inverary.
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The
Dumbuck Crannog
The Crannog at Dumbuck, NS 415 739, was discovered in
the River Clyde about 1.5 km east south east of Dumbarton
Rock. Excavation in 1898 revealed timber piles enclosing
an area 15.2 m in diameter on which there was a flooring
of horizontal timbers. Supports for a superstructure were
also apparent.
The
remains of a stone break-water encircled the crannog and
a causeway linked it to a 'dock-like structure' containing
a dug-out canoe.
However
some of the artefacts uncovered during the Dumbuck crannog
the excavation were considered to be suspect by some members
of the archaelogical community and a lengthy debate was
carried out in the local and national press for many years.
Today these objects are generally considered to be fakes
planted at the time of the excavation.
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The only place in Scotland to see a crannog
as it would have looked in the Iron Age is the
Crannog
Centre, Kenmore, Loch Tay (pictured
above/left). This has been reconstructed from
evidence uncovered at the Oakbank crannog near
Fearnan. Not only can you walk into a crannog,
you can also learn about the lives of it's Iron
Age inhabitants through the excellant tour.
Loch Tay has some 18 crannog sites. Some of
them are completely submerged and can only be
seen from the air, others look just like small
islands. The one pictured above has trees planted
on it and is the closest to the Kenmore centre.
Loch
Awe has around 20 crannog sites.
In
fact crannog sites have been uncovered in many
Scottish lochs and along the Clyde estuary.
Many can only be investigated with diving apparatus.
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