What is a Crannog?
We love Crannogs!
Crannogs are found across Scotland and Ireland. They are houses built on artificial islands over water, usually with a bridge or causeway joining them to the shore. At the Scottish Crannog Centre we are interested in the first Crannogs in Scotland, those built in the Early Iron Age, 2500 years ago.
Crannogs are incredible buildings not only for the skills and technologies required to build and maintain them but also for the way they preserve information about the past. As underwater sites, they protect valuable information about our ancestors, and often reveal unprecedented levels of preservation that allows us to get a rare glimpse of prehistoric life.
In our Museum exhibition we care for the artefacts found on Crannog excavations from Loch Tay and beyond. These include insights into domestic life through a wooden butter dish containing real butter, to their cultural life through the bridge of a 7-stringed instrument found within the remains of the Crannog house.
Through reconstructing both Crannogs and Iron Age houses at the new development at Dalerb, we are able to test theories of how these structures were built, the skills and tools needed, and as a community, get one step closer to connecting to the Crannog communities of the past.
