Thirty-one feet from the outside piles towards the south-east, there was a layer of rough, large stones, marked B on Plate III., about 15 feet long from north to south, and 11 feet broad. Seventeen feet farther north, and 18 feet from the east side, there was a spade-shaped platform, with the convex end to the north, about 26 feet in length and breadth. The Plan shows its appearance in February 1879, with several pieces of wood flooring towards the east side, and a layer of large rough stones at A. In October 1880 some of the logs had rotted away, and others were pierced through by the shoots of the marsh plants, which are gradually covering the partially drained area. Thirty feet to the west of A, there was a circular layer of rough stones about 10 feet in diameter, surrounded by several rings of piles. On removing some loose dry peat on the east part of A, we found a floor of oak logs, laid north and south, 10 feet 6 inches in length and 8 feet in breadth. The surface was somewhat flat; but this may have been caused by exposure to the weather. The interstices were closely packed with white clay and the sphagnum moss, so common in our bogs, with a few stakes driven between them. At the west or inner side of this floor there was a log 13 feet 6 inches long, 1 foot broad, and 8 inches deep. Beyond it was a layer of large rough stones from 9 to 12 inches deep, which had been disturbed by some idle visitors, so that its exact extent cannot be given. Under the stones was a thin layer of peat, then a log floor resting on clay and stones, and under that a second floor, the parts of which were sloping. Under the large oak log already mentioned lay a few birch logs sloping towards the north-west, and covering at the left side one angle of a frame 6 feet 6 inches square, made of four oak beams, that on the south-east side having two square-cut mortise holes, measuring 6 by 5 inches, and 4 feet apart, and that on the opposite side having one mortise hole with a piece of the upright still in it. In the angle between this frame and the south end of the large log there was a circular hearth of rough stones bedded in clay, and a similar hearth beyond the north-west angle, where there seems to have been another square frame without mortises. There were several inches in depth of ashes, with charred wood, and fragments of bone too small and wasted to indicate what animal they belonged to. West of the second hearth the following section was noted in descending series:—
(a.) Rough stones, 9 inches.
(b.) Peat, 12 inches.
(c.) Ashes, 5 inches.
(d.) White clay, 3 or 4 inches.
(e.) Ashes.
Under the floor first described there was a layer of smaller sticks and branches of oak, hazel, and birch, and at the north-east we found under the branches a layer of the common bracken, Pteris aquilina. The influx of water prevented further examination, but at different places the spade struck on logs which could not be seen. The wet state of the peat, ashes, and clay made exact search difficult. Near the second hearth we found a long rude whetstone, a hammer-stone of water-rolled quartzite pebble, a fragment of smoothly-worked wood, 3 inches long, 2 broad, and 1⁄2 an inch thick, which may have been part of a ladle or large spoon, and a small branch like one's little finger, rudely pointed, and with an untrimmed bent head. When unpacked at the Museum, these pieces of wood had gone to pieces.
A trench cut from the hearths to B showed logs and stones under the stone floor there, but not in any regular order. Under the stones, at C, we got two broad pieces of oak about 41⁄2 feet long, which may have been parts of a canoe.
Near the beginning of the gangway, at the end of a log, there rolled from a labourer's spade a ring of unevenly polished cannel coal, which is shown in Fig. 187, full size.
The piles are pointed, and show the axe-marks distinctly. Two or three branches, 2 inches thick, had been severed by a single cut. The piles are from 6 to 8 inches thick, but I saw one a foot thick. One which was pulled up was 5 feet long. The Plan shows the radiating and curved arrangement of the piles.
Fig. 187.—Ring of Cannel Coal (1⁄1).
At the south-east of the crannog, a few feet from the edge, two piles 6 feet apart show where the gangway entered. Two or three are seen farther off, then about twenty at a place where the gangway seems to have widened to nearly 12 feet, and beyond these are two other pairs, the last being about 100 feet from the shore. Beyond that the piles have rotted away through exposure to the weather in dry seasons. There are decayed remains of timber at various places round the shore.
While we were digging at the crannog, Sir Herbert Maxwell, who is an experienced observer of lake-dwellings, explored the whole circuit of the loch, and reported that he had found some logs laid like a corduroy road. I did not see them at the time, and when I went back frost and flood had hidden the traces of them. At the letter C I have indicated pretty nearly the spot where they were seen. Perhaps another platform was there.