Loch Monzievaird

NN82SW 15 8430 2339.

(Classified as artificial islands). "Loch Ochtertyre near Crieff: last island (probably NN 8433 2349) said to be natural; second island just S of first (probably NN 8430 2339) is of stones and is artificial, a submerged causeway runs E to the shore; third island, W of Narrows (i.e. probably NN 8392 2328) also artificial, built on piles, said to have been used as a prison" (information from

T N Johnston's lake survey notebooks).

F O Blundell 1913

There is no conclusive evidence of a crannog on any of the islands in Loch Monzievaird. The large island at NN 8433 2349 is too densely vegetated for close inspection but appears natural. The island at NN 8430 2339, although of stone, is mostly obscured by vegetation and almost submerged by the present level of the loch. The causeway to the shore was not located. The island NN 8392 2328, also of stone, is now submerged, only trees showing above the water.

Loch Ochtertyre was the original name of Loch Monzievaird and the one I would like to see on the OS maps and plans. The islands at NN 8392 2328 is thought to have been a dungeon associated with Castle Cluggy (NN82SW 1). The level of Loch Monzievaird is artificially controlled and at low water level wooden piles can be seen around the perimeter of this island. The loch itself was created about 200 years ago, the area submerged being previously a marsh (information from Sir Wm Murray, Ochtertyre House, Crieff).

Visited by OS (EGC) 3 January 1967

(Classification amended to crannog). In 2004, a new initiative was set up to examine crannogs in Perthshire. The county has a wide range of geological conditions and the difference in types of lochs reflects this. Some are shallow with farmland and natural woodlands while others are deeper, often with more barren surroundings. The range is likely to produce crannogs of different forms and possibly different functions. The surviving Pont manuscript maps (1580s-90s) and the Blaeu atlas (1654) show many thousands of settlements, including loch dwellings. The work in the summer of 2004 involved surveying a series of these islands and, where possible, collecting samples for dating evidence. The results produced a range of dates from the Early Iron Age up to the recent past. All the dates quoted are preliminary and so, at present, have no laboratory number.

NN 840 232 Loch Monzievaird. This interesting site (NN82SW 15) was planned in Loch Monzievaird near Crieff. There are many well-preserved timbers in the shallow water around the perimeter of the island, and deeper underwater there are vertical faces of organic material that look as if they had been exposed by collapse sometime in the last few hundred years. The upper timbers seem to have been placed there to contain and support the outer edge of the island. The deeper remains contain many large and small timbers, both piles and cross-pieces, some with the remains of mortise joints. The area was owned by the Murrays of Tullibardine in the first half of the 16th century, and one of its islands was shown by Pont as being occupied.

An oak pile from a line of timbers near the surface was sampled and produced a date of 140±50 BP (AD 1810), contrasting dramatically with a sample of a softwood timber projecting from the deep vertical section which gave a date of 2560±70 BP (610 BC). This site is the clearest evidence of a settlement constructed in the Early Iron Age and reused very much later.

Sponsors: Perth & Kinross Heritage Trust, Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology, Mr Halliwell, Tom Coope, Mr Brian Souter, Drummond Estates, Mr Orrock.

N Dixon and M Shelley 2004