Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – Crannogs are fascinating structures built on artificial islands made of stone or timber in lochs. These sites first emerged around 6,000 years ago during the Neolithic era, though few have been documented from the Middle Ages, which ended about 500 years ago. Medieval crannogs are rare and have been minimally studied, leaving much unknown about their construction and purpose throughout history.
An aerial drone photograph of Loch Achilty crannog (© Andy Hickie)
Theories suggest they served as dwellings for community leaders, symbols of power, or ordinary farmsteads for extended families seeking protection on the water.
Underwater archaeologists are now set to explore Loch Achilty near Contin in the Scottish Highlands. This project is funded by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and involves volunteers from the North of Scotland Archaeological Society (NOSAS) and the Nautical Archaeology Society. Scheduled for September 2025, recent tests on underwater timbers recovered by NOSAS indicate part of this crannog was constructed using oak dated between AD 1046 – 1221 and another between AD 1323 – 1421.
These findings suggest Medieval construction or modification; however, it remains uncertain if it was initially built earlier. The duration of its use—whether centuries-long or brief—and its abandonment timeline remain unclear. The joint project aims to determine this chronology from initial construction to abandonment with a £2,415 grant supporting their efforts.
A volunteer diver from the Nautical Archaeology Society inspects underwater timbers at the Loch Achilty crannog site (© Duncan Ross)
“Crannogs contain some of the best-preserved evidence for life in the past in Scotland and are a critically important part of our settlement history which is one of the reasons why we were so excited about this application,” Dr. Helen Spencer FSAScot, Head of Research at the Society said.
The team will document underwater features to better understand construction methods and signs of occupation while seeking additional timbers for radiocarbon dating and potentially dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) for precise dating. They will also search for organic materials like charcoal to perform paleoenvironmental analysis that could offer insights into the loch’s historical environment.
NOSAS volunteers surveying the Loch Achilty crannog site in 2022 (© James McComas)
“Due to the incredible preservation of this type of material, crannogs store exceptional evidence for what the wider environment and climate was like. As we face the challenges of anthropogenic climate change (i.e. climate change originating in human activity), the information stored on crannogs represents a unique opportunity to offer a long-term perspective on our present situation and how people at different times have coped with climate change in the past, ” University of Aberdeen’s Dr Michael Stratigos FSAScot said in a press release.
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“At the moment, we have dates spanning almost 400 years for a structure on the island. Hopefully the excavation of more timbers will lead to more dates and therefore a sequence for how the crannog was used – more specific dates of sequences could help to provide the story of who built the crannog and who used it,” Richard Guest, Project Lead and amateur archaeologist with NOSAS said.
Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer
