Scottish Crannog Centre

Had a great day out today - we went to the Scottish Crannog Centre on Loch Tay. Crannogs are a type of ancient loch-dwelling found throughout Scotland. The earliest loch-dwelling in Scotland is some 5,000 years old but people built, modified, and re-used crannogs in Scotland up until the 17th century AD. Throughout their long history crannogs served as farmers' homesteads, status symbols, refuges in times of trouble, hunting and fishing stations, and even holiday residences. In Highland Perthshire, the prehistoric crannogs were originally timber-built roundhouses supported on piles or stilts driven into the loch bed. For more info, see the Scottish Crannog Centre website.

We had a guided tour of the Crannog and then a demonstration of various early iron age crafts, with the chance to try them ourselves - although I stuck to taking photos of others trying them out. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and we felt it was a really successful day out. We will be rebuilding our round house, and got a lot of tips from seeing the construction of the crannog.