Archaeology Notes

Event ID 695330

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/695330

NR75NE 5 7904 5862.

(1) NR 790 586. (2) NR 788 586. Two crannogs were discovered in 1890 when Lochan Dughaill was drained. The site of only one of these is now visible (No. 1, below), appearing as a roughly circular platform c. 18.5m in diameter and 0.9m high, overgrown with coarse grass and rushes. It lies 455m E of the road and 36.5m S of a stone-lined tank into which the present drainage system is directed. The area around has been recently planted with conifers. Excavations shortly after the discovery showed that crannog 1, the larger and better preserved, was constructed of layers of timber and brushwood, consolidated by large boulders and wooden piles. It was connected to the shore by steppng stones. The finds made, now in National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS), include a flint scraper, two whetstones, a perforated stone disc, part of a cannel-coal bracelet, and a small clay crucible. A handled wheel-made vessel, and fragments of similar vessels, are considered to be of 15th-16th century date (information from R B K Stevenson) From structural details, it is thought that this crannog may have been built as early as the 2nd century AD, and re-occupied in the medieval period.

(2) The smaller crannog, of which no visible traces remain, was situated about 230m W of the first. When the loch was drained it appeared as a ring of posts, enclosing an area c. 10.0m in diameter. A trial trench was dug, revealing a layer of brushwood. No further information is given (Munro 1893).

RCAHMS 1971, visited 1967; R Munro 1893.

At NR 7908 5861 is a slightly raised area of ground, with a scatter of stone and covered by rough grass. This is clearly RCAHMS's site 1. The smaller crannog (site 2) was not located.

(1) surveyed at 1:10,000.

Visited by OS (D W R) 5 July 1973.

NR 7905 5863. The remains of the crannog (1) are generally as described by RCAHMS (1971). The mound has been mutilated by forestry ploughng and is now completely tree covered. Its extent is no longer clearly visible.

Surveyed at 1/10,000 scale.

Visited by OS (B S) 14 March 1977.

Dateable from Early Christian - medieval period

L R Laing 1975.