104 SCOTTISH FORESTS IN EARLY TIMES. 



its present surroundings of the great and thick pine-wood of 

 Rothiemurchus, the roots of the trees washed by the water of the 

 loch, it probably presents a closely similar aspect, so far as its 

 surroundings are concerned, to that which it did when the early 

 lake-dwellers occupied it — a sight not easily seen elsewhere. For 

 instance, Dr. Munro * says of the lake-dwelling which this Society 

 visited on one of its excursions at Mid Buston, Kilmaurs — " The 

 topographical features and environments of Loch Buston, when 

 the crannog-builders commenced their operations, were totally 

 different from what they are now. Then a stagnant lake, deeply 

 encroached upon by a marginal zone of aquatic plants, and 

 surrounded by a forest of oaks and other indigenous trees, 

 occupied the site of the present fertile basin ; now . . scarcely 

 a tree marks the once wooded locality, part of which is still 



significantly known as the Shaws I question if there 



is an oak tree growing in the whole of Ayrshire, from which a 

 dug-out canoe having the dimensions of the one found at Loch 

 Buston could be made." This canoe is 22 feet in length. Dug- 

 out canoes do not necessarily carry us back to pre-historic times, 

 but they are the earliest form of boat which our native 

 shipbuilders have left to us. It is curiously significant that so 

 many have been found on the Clyde — to-day the shipbuilding 

 centre of the world. Then it must have produced fine oak trees, 

 as now it produces coal and steel. 



The earliest type of castle in Scotland, which belonged to the 

 Celtic period, took the form of a wooden hall, enclosed in a space 

 surrounded by an earth-rampart having on the top a palisade of 

 stakes closely set together, their lateral branches left on and 

 interlacing with one another. Such a castle was that of Cullen. 

 Coming down to 563 a.d., a definite date, when the earliest 

 monastery in Iona was established, it is clearly stated that the 

 principal buildings were entirely constructed of wood and wattles. 

 The wood is not likely to have been grown on Iona ; but it may 

 be stated with certainty that the timber used in constructing these 

 early Scottish edifices — crannogs, huts, palisades, castles and 

 houses, as well as the canoes, was native grown, and abundant 

 in many localities. A curious side-light bearing on this point may 



1 Ancient Scottish Lake-Dwellings, pp. 265-9. 



