Loch Ard

NN40SE 7 4653 0211.

On 14th September 1986 a logboat was discovered on the bed of Loch Ard, 3m S of Crannog (NN40SE 1) and at a depth of about 5m. A section of the boat measuring some 3.7m in length was clearly seen; one end has been destroyed but further timber work and heaped stones may indicate the location of the other.

P Dale, E Proudfoot and R Mowat 1986.

In September 1986 sports divers discovered a possible logboat (which was not recovered) in Loch Ard. It lay in about 5m depth of water at a point 3m S of the crannog NN40SE 3, and 370m WSW of the Altskeith Hotel. Loch Ard is one of the lochs that occupy the glaciated valleys of the Trossachs and is at an altitude of about 32m OD.

A section of the boat measuring 3.7m in length, 0.8m in beam and with an interior depth of about 0.5m was identified; the cross-section was noted as semi-circular. One end had been lost but timberwork and heaped stones were thought to indicate the location of the other.

What is apparently this object was re-located during underwater survey (by Niall Gregory in September 1992) at a depth of 1.6m and about 5.5m S of the crannog, where the loch-bed is of silt. It was identified as a tree-trunk rather than a logboat, and seen to have split rather than been worked. It is aligned E-W and the exposed portion measures 3.1m in length. The exposed end 'splits into a swallow-tail' at a point about 1.5m from the end, where it measures 0.35m in thickness. No 'heaped stones' were seen in the immediate vicinity.

P Dale, E Proudfoot and R Mowat 1986; R J C Mowat 1996.