Ancient Scottish Lake-Dwellings or Crannogs / With a supplementary chapter on remains of lake-dwellings in England

by Robert Munro

Meantime the appointment of Sir James Fergusson as Governor of Bombay, and the subsequent return of Mr. Cochran-Patrick as M.P. for North Ayrshire, entirely precluded both these gentlemen from giving their personal attention to the proposed investigations, in which they were so highly interested; and hence the carrying out of them, when a favourable opportunity should occur, was intrusted to me.

Investigations.—It was not till the 28th June 1880 that the weather permitted the work of excavating the mound to be begun, which, however, was then continued regularly during the greater part of the month of July, under the most favourable circumstances. A long course of dry weather made the ground exceptionally suitable for digging; the workmen, with the intelligent forester, Mr. Hopson, at their head, were skilful and thoroughly interested in the investigations; and as to the general management, not only had we the benefit of the able and obliging assistance of Mr. Baxter, factor on the Kilkerran estate, but also the occasional presence and advice of several members of the Council of this Society, among whom were R. W. Cochran-Patrick, Esq., M.P., Sir W. J. M. Cuninghame, Bart., of Corsehill, Colonel Hunter-Weston of Hunterston, J. H. Stoddart, Esq., Glasgow Herald, etc. I have specially to mention Dr. Macdonald, rector of the Ayr Academy, who for several days took the entire supervision of the works and finds. It will be thus seen that the materials of this report are the joint contributions of various hands and various minds, so that the individuality which the writing of it confers upon me must be largely discounted.

Upon my first visit to Lochspouts, I was struck with the smallness of its dimensions; its superficies, according to measurements kindly made by Mr. Brown, clerk to Mr. Baxter, being only 2 acres. Its margin, and indeed its whole area, were thickly covered with long grasses and rushes. On its north side, near the middle portion of the rocky ridge, and a little to the west of the outlet, lay the remains of the crannog, a low circular mound overgrown with coarse grass, and so close to the present margin of the lake that it formed a peninsula easily approached by terra firma. I understand, however, that when Mr. Cochran-Patrick visited it in the previous October, the neck of land, now dry, was so soft and boggy that it was with difficulty he got across to the mound.

These observations will be more clearly comprehended by a reference to the accompanying sketch (Frontispiece), taken by a young artist, Mr. J. Lawson, when the explorations were nearly completed. The view is looking northwards. In the foreground are the marshy loch and crannog (the overlying mound being now nearly cleared away), then the rocky ridge extending right and left, behind which is the open valley, with the hill Culdoon, and monument to the late Sir Charles Dalrymple Fergusson in the distance. Along this ridge are seen several hollows, which are supposed to have been formerly outlets; the original or primary one being at the extreme right, while about the middle, and almost in a line with the crannog, is the artificial cutting which forms the present outlet.

Previous to my visit there were no piles detected on the mound, but after a considerable amount of searching the tops of one or two were observed on its east side, at the bottom of a sluggish channel kept open by the surplus water making its way to the outlet. Guided by these indications and a few trials with the spade, the tops of others were exposed, so that in a short time half the circle was thus traced. After due deliberation, in consultation with Mr. Baxter, who, on behalf of the proprietor, supplied the men and the labouring materials, it was agreed that the only exploration that could then be made, without further cutting of the rock (an undertaking which would involve a large amount of expense), was to clear away the entire mound down to the level of the water. Accordingly, the men were directed to make a broad trench, running east and west, the stuff from which was to be removed in layers, so as to localise, as far as possible, any remains that might be found. When this was finished, another similar trench was made at right angles to the former, after which the four remaining angular portions were removed. In the course of these excavations the following facts regarding the structure and surroundings of the crannog were ascertained:—

1. Log Pavement.—About 5 feet deep (measuring from centre of mound), and only a few inches above the level of surrounding water, there was exposed a rude, imperfect, and irregularly-shaped wooden pavement, formed of flattened oak beams. It covered only the central portion of the area contained within the circle of piles, the rest of which was laid with branches and stems of trees. Near the surrounding piles, on the east side, a more carefully constructed arrangement of this wood-work was noticed, consisting of slanting stakes and horizontal beams of various sizes, forming a sort of reticulated and firm flooring, which sloped slightly downwards towards the piles. A similar disposition of the marginal wood-work was noticed elsewhere, especially on the north-west side, in a line with the gangway to be afterwards described; but on the lake side of the crannog the exact mode of its structure was not practically exposed to view, owing to its shelving below the water, but the presumption is that it was pretty much the same all round. On digging beneath this log pavement large beams and brushwood were generally encountered, but the voluminous gushing up of water prevented reliable observations from being made regarding these deeper structures. Occasionally ashes and charcoal were turned up, and in one spot, near the centre, and under my own inspection, the men succeeded in digging downwards more than 2 feet below the log pavement before the water oozed up, in the course of which nothing was turned out but pure ashes, bits of charcoal, and large quantities of the shells of limpets and common wilks. At the bottom of this hole were solid oak beams, apparently flattened; but no sooner were their surfaces exposed than the water rushed in and filled the trench. This gave rise to the conjecture that this under-stratum of remains represented another, and of course an older, period of human occupancy, which also derived some support from the fact that the surface of the log pavement was on a higher level than the tops of the encircling piles. It occurred to me, however, that it was a prepared cavity, and originally intended for the purpose for which it was evidently used, viz. an ashpit; and hence, from want of corroborative evidence, the conjecture that the log pavement is a secondary one, and superimposed on the débris of a former dwelling, must for the present remain sub judice. Although portions of mortised beams were in several instances met with, there were no remains found of a circle of stockades having transverse beams, and raised above the log flooring, as was the case at the Lochlee crannog. Had such a structure existed, it would have been removed in all likelihood when the lake was lowered, as the whole wood-work would have been exposed to view. The diameter of the crannog, i.e. of the circular area enclosed within the submerged piles, was about 95 feet. No further attempt was made to examine the marginal structure of the island owing to its submerged condition; but the probability is, judging from analogy and the certainty of one circle of piles, that an outer circle exists, with which the former is connected by the usual type of mortised beams.

2. Hearths.—Above the log pavement, and a few yards apart from each other, were three circular hearths, each about 5 feet in diameter, formed of flat stones imbedded in a bed of yellow clay, and raised on a sort of pedestal of clay and stones, which varied in thickness from 1 to 1¹⁄₂ foot. One of them, on being demolished, was found to have been built directly over a former stony hearth, with an interval of about a foot. The stuff immediately surrounding them consisted of alternate layers of clay and ashes; and from the number of such layers, indicating collectively a considerable thickness—in one place over 3 feet—it appeared to me that the position of these hearths could not be taken as a criterion of the length of occupancy in the same way as the superimposed series at Lochlee, inasmuch as abundant evidence of the remains of fires were found where no neatly constructed hearth was observed. As will be seen from a glance at the sketch of Lochspouts (see the Frontispiece), they were all situated near the centre of the crannog, but on its southern half, i.e. the semicircle farthest from the shore.

3. Gangway.—On making a few trial trenches in the space directly between the shore and the crannog in search of a gangway, we could find no indications of wood-work. One day, however, my attention was directed to a portion of the log pavement which looked like a wooden roadway projecting to the margin of the island, and pointing in a north-western direction, towards a prominence in the trap ridge. Observing, also, that before the lake was lowered this prominence would be the nearest land to the crannog, it immediately struck me that if there was a gangway at all it would be found along this line. Hypothesis was right this time. The adhesive nature of the lake sediment prevented the water from oozing up so quickly as it did on the crannog, so that we were enabled to expose the wood-work several feet below the level of the lake. Close to the crannog the upper beams of the gangway were about 3 feet below the surface of the grass, and fully more below that of the log pavement; but as we neared the shore with the digging they became less buried, and some of the uprights were found even projecting above the ground.

The general plan on which this gangway was constructed appeared to be identical with that adopted by the crannog-builders of Lochlee. Upright piles, singly and in groups, were placed in a zigzag fashion, between which the horizontal beams stretched, fan-like, and so formed a sort of lattice-work, with empty lozenge-shaped spaces between. From one of these holes or meshes, some 5 feet below the surface of the ground, a fine granite quern-stone was extracted. The piles projected some 2 feet or more above the body of the gangway, but there was no appearance of the remains of a platform. The depth of the lower portion of the gangway could not be reached. It would thus appear that at least the transverse beams of the gangway were originally under water—a remark equally applicable to that at Lochlee; and it is highly probable that the primary purpose of this so-called gangway was to supply, on emergencies, a means of secret access to the crannog.

4. Composition of Mound.—The surface of the mound was composed of coarse grass, having tough matted roots spreading in a thin layer of soil, which overlay about a foot and a half of stones and rubbish, in which no relics were found. Below this the materials were of a very variable character; sometimes vegetable mould, stems of grasses jointed like straw, and beds of heather and moss, which could readily be separated into layers; and at other times heaps of ashes and charcoal mixed with quantities of the shells of wilks, limpets, and hazel-nuts. Intermingled with this heterogeneous mass were large and small stones, broken bones, portions of deer horns, and the relics to be afterwards described. Though one or two ashpits, mostly composed of fine ashes, sea-shells, and broken hazel-nuts, were distinctly discernible in the vicinity of the fireplaces, no regular refuse-heap was met with; and the broken bones and horns seemed to be dispersed over the general area of the crannog.