It was not till after the discoveries on the Continent had attracted universal attention that archæologists began to look for similar remains in Britain. It was then found that early historic references to island forts, and some incidental notices of the exposure of buried islands artificially constructed of wood and stone, and other remains of lacustrine abodes, during the drainage of lochs and marshes in the last and early part of this century, had been entirely overlooked. The merit of correctly interpreting these remains in Scotland, and bringing them systematically before antiquaries, belongs to the late Joseph Robertson, Esq., F.S.A., Scotland, who read a paper on the subject to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland on the 14th of December, 1857, entitled, "Notices of the Isle of the Loch of Banchory, the Isle of Loch Canmor, and other Scottish examples of the artificial or stockaded islands, called crannogs in Ireland, and Keltischen Pfahlbauten in Switzerland."
Mr. Robertson's paper, though not published, at once attracted attention, and stimulated so much further inquiry on the part of the members, that, at the very next meeting of the Society, another contribution on the subject was read by Mr. John Mackinlay, F.S.A., Scotland (B. 21), from which it appeared that as early as 1812 this gentleman had observed some remains (now surmised to be a crannog) in Dhu Loch, in the island of Bute, which were described in a letter dated the 13th February, 1813. This communication found its way to George Chalmers, Esq., author of "Caledonia," regarding which, writing on the 26th of April, 1813, he says:—"It goes directly to illustrate some of the obscurest antiquities of Scotland. I mean the wooden castles, which belong to the Scottish period when stone and lime were not much used in building. I will make proper use of this discovery of Mr. Mackinlay." In 1863, Dr. John Grigor, of Nairn, described "two ancient lake-dwellings or crannoges in the Loch of the Clans, Nairnshire." (B. 55.) The remains, however, were too imperfect to be of value in illustrating their structure, and the only relics found were a portion of a small stone cup or lamp, two whetstones, an iron axe-head, and some charcoal and bits of bone.
A more important discovery, made about the same time, was a group of artificial islands in Loch Dowalton, Wigtownshire, which were first described by his Grace the Duke of Northumberland (then Lord Lovaine) in a paper read at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne meeting of the British Association in 1863. (B. 56.) About two years later Mr. John Stuart, Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, visited Dowalton, and, owing to a greater drainage of the loch having been made in the interval, was enabled to re-examine the Dowalton islands under more favourable circumstances. The result of his labours was an elaborate paper to the Society, in which he gave a detailed account of the structure and relics of these crannogs, and also took the opportunity of incorporating into his article all the facts he could glean, so as to afford a basis for comparing the Scottish examples with those in other countries. (B. 94.)
Since the publication of Dr. Stuart's paper in 1866, little progress was made in the investigation of Scottish crannogs, though traces of them were occasionally noticed in various parts of Scotland, till the discovery and examination of the Lochlee crannog, Ayrshire, in 1878-9. The work done at Lochlee was important, not only because of the varied collection of relics secured, but also on account of the interest it had excited in archæological research, the fruit of which has already been reaped by the discovery of no less than five other lake-dwellings in the south-west of Scotland, all of which have now been carefully investigated. Full details of these investigations are given in the Collections of the Ayrshire and Galloway Archæological Association, as well as in my recent work on the "Scottish Lake-Dwellings." (B. 331, 344, 373, and 426.)
While such general indications of lake-dwellings can hardly be said to limit their geographical distribution to any given area in Scotland, it is a singular fact that, so far as the discovery of actual remains illustrative of the civilisation and social condition of their occupiers is concerned, we are almost entirely dependent on the investigations made at Dowalton, Lochlee, Lochspouts, Buston, Airrieoulland, Barhapple, and Friar's Carse, all of which are situated within the counties of Ayr, Dumfries, and Wigtown. In instituting a comparison between the relics of these respective groups their resemblance is so wonderfully alike that we have no difficulty in dispensing with the necessity of discussing the merits of each group separately; so that whatever inferences can be legitimately derived from a critical examination of any one group may be safely applied to the whole.
As a preliminary to this inquiry the following details of the investigation of lake-dwellings in Scotland will, I trust, be sufficient to give general readers a tolerably correct notion of the social conditions and environments of the people whose history, solely from an archæological standpoint, it is our object here to pourtray.
DOWALTON.
The loch of Dowalton was of an irregular form, about 1½ mile long, and about three-quarters of a mile in greatest breadth, and without any marked outfall for drainage. Sir William Maxwell effected this by making a cut, 25 feet deep, through the wall of whinstone and slate which closed it in at its south-eastern boundary. When the waters were allowed to run off in the summer of 1863 no less than five artificially constructed islands became visible. One of these had a cairn of stones on it which always remained above water, and was known as the "Miller's Cairn," from the fact of its having been used, like the Nilometer, to measure the quantity of water in the lake, and thereby to regulate its supply to neighbouring mills. "On approaching the cairn," says Dr. Stuart, "the numerous rows of piles which surrounded it first attracted notice. These piles were formed of young oak-trees. Lying on the north-east were mortised frames of beams of oak, like hurdles, and, below these, round trees laid horizontally. In some cases the vertical piles were mortised into horizontal bars. Below them were layers of hazel and birch branches, and under these were masses of ferns, the whole mixed with large boulders, and penetrated by piles. Above all was a surface of stone and soil, which was several feet under water till the recent drainage took place. The hurdle frames were neatly mortised together, and were secured by pegs in the mortise holes. On one side of the island a round space of a few feet in size appeared, on which was a layer of white clay, browned and calcined as from the action of fire, and around it were bones of animals and ashes of wood.... Lines of piles, apparently to support a causeway, led from it to the shore." (B. 94.)
The other islands were constructed in a similar manner, and of like materials. The largest and farthest from the shore measured twenty-three yards in diameter, and its surface was three feet lower than that of the others. Several canoes and bronze dishes were found in the mud in the vicinity of these islands, and in making excavations on them many relics and broken bones were collected, of which the following is a list as far as known up to the present time:—