; 
_ the presence of the former animal ” (the reindeer). 
NA TORE 
145 
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1882 
ANCIENT SCOTTISH LAKE DWELLINGS 
Ancient Scottish Lake Dwellings. By Dr. 
(Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1882.) 
HE first account of the Irish crannoges, by Sir W. 
k. Wilde, dates back to the year 1839, and the 
Lake Dwellings of Switzerland, which have shed so much 
light on prehistoric archeology, were discovered in the 
year 1853 ; yet the first scientific account of any similar 
dwellings in Scotland was inthe paper by Mr. Robertson, 
read before the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in the 
year 1857. 
Dr, Munro has now collected together in an interesting 
and well-illustrated volume the substance of what was 
previously known, and added to it an account of some 
interesting investigations of his own, in a general work 
on the ancient Scottish Lake Dwellings or Crannoges. 
The number of these more or less artificial islands now 
known is very considerable. In Wigtownshire we are 
told that all the lakes were once literally studded with 
these island habitations. 
So far as can be judged at present there is no reason 
to refer the Scottish Crannoges to so early a period as 
the earlier Swiss Lake villages. The objects of stone are 
comparatively few, while those of bone, horn, and of wood 
are very numerous. None of the animal remains belong 
to any extinct species. The horns are mostly those of 
the red-deer ; in one case indeed, that of the crannoge at 
Lochlee, some fragments have been found which may 
possibly have belonged to the reindeer. This however 
seems very doubtful. The late Dr. Rolleston, by whom 
the remains were examined, says of the fragmentary 
pieces of horn : ‘‘I incline to set them down as indicating 
“e It 
is usually easy,’ he says, “to separate even the frag- 
ments” (of reindeer’s horn). ‘‘if the fragment is fresh. 
Of course the surfaces of the horns in these two horns” 
(z.e. of the reindeer and of the red-deer) “are different, 
but here the two fragmentary horns have no brow antler 
left and their surfaces have been macerated so long as to 
be desquamated.” It is obvious therefore that Dr. 
Rolleston felt considerable doubt on the subject. 
The majority of the metallic objects are of iron, but 
some few gold ornaments have also been discovered, and 
in one case, viz. at Buston, a single coin which, curiously 
enough, is a forgery. It consists of two thin plates of 
gold fastened together by some resinous substance. It 
belongs toa class which has hitherto been found almost 
exclusively in England, and is probably Saxon, belonging 
most likely to the sixth or seventh century. A very 
similar coin has been found near Dover. 
We will now leave Dr. Munro to speak for himself: 
Munro. 
“The great and primary object,” he justly observes, 
‘of the island builder was the protection afforded by the 
surrounding lake or morass, the securing of which has 
continued to be a ruling principle in the erection of de- 
fensive works down to the Middle Aves, long after the 
wooden islands ceased to be constructed. The transition 
from an island fort to the massive medizval castle, with 
its moat and drawbridge, is but another step in the pro- 
gressive march of civilisation” (p. 243). 
VOL. XXVII.—No. 685 
The objects discovered in the Scottish Crannoges are in 
the main of a domestic character : 
“Indeed,” says Dr. Munro, “amongst the relics mili- 
tary remains are only feebly represented by a few iron 
daggers and spearheads, one or two doubtful arrow- 
points, and a quantity of so-called pebbles and so-called 
sling-stones. On the other hand, a very large percentage 
of the articles consists of querns, hammer-stones, polishers, 
flint-flakes, and scrapers, stone and clay spindle-whorls, 
pins, needles, and bodkins, knife-handles of red-deer horn, 
together with many other implements of the same ma- 
terial, bowls, ladles, and other vessels of wood, some of 
which were turned on the lathe; knives, axes, saws, 
hammers, chisels, and gauges of iron ; several crucibles, 
lumps of iron slag, and other remains of metals, &c. 
From all these, not to mention the great variety of arma- 
ments, there can be no ambiguity as to the testimony they 
afford of the peaceful prosecution of various arts and 
industries by the lake-dwellers”’ (p. 282). 
As regards the mode of life of the Scotch Lake-dwellers, 
we can, he continues : 
“From the respective reports of Professors Owen, 
Rolleston, and Cleland, on a selection of osseous remains 
taken from the lake dwellings at Dowalton, Lochlee, and 
Buston (see pp. 50, 139-143, 236-239), we can form a fair 
idea of the food of the occupiers. The Celtic short-horn 
(Bos longifrons), the so-called goat-horned sheep (Ouzs 
aries, var. brachyura), and a domestic breed of pigs were 
largely consumed. The horse was only scantily used. 
The number of bones and horns of the red-deer and roe- 
buck showed that venison was by no means a rare addi- 
tion to the list of their dietary. Among birds only the 
goose has been identified, but this is no criterion of the 
extent of their encroachment on the feathered tribe, as 
only the larger bones werecollected and reported upon. 
To this bill of fare the occupiers of Lochspouts Crannog, 
being comparatively near the sea, added several kinds of 
shell-fish. In all the lake dwellings that have come under 
my own observation, the broken shells of hazel nuts were 
in profuse abundance’” (p. 283). 
It is an interesting fact that the Lake-dwellings as yet 
discovered are by no means evenly distributed throughout 
Scotland. 
“ Though we cannot argue definitely from the present 
geographical distribution of the Scottish Lake Dwellings, 
the indications are so clearly suggestive of their having 
been peculiar to those districts formerly occupied by 
Celtic races, that the significance of this generalisation 
cannot be overlooked. ‘Thus, adopting Skene’s division 
of the four kingdoms into which Scotland was ultimately 
divided by the contending nationalities of Picts, Scots, 
Angles, and Strathclyde Britons, after the final with- 
~ drawal of the Romans, we see that of all the Crannoges 
proper none have been found within the territories of the 
Angles ; ten and six are respectively within the confines 
of the Picts and Scots, while no less than twenty-eight are 
situated in the Scottish portion of the ancient kingdom of 
Strathclyde. Nor is this generalisation much affected by 
an extension of the list, so as to include those stony islets 
so frequently met with in the Highland lakes. On the 
other hand, that they have not been found in the south- 
eastern part of Scotland may suggest the theory that 
these districts had been occupied by the Angles before 
Celtic civilisation—or rather the warlike necessities of the 
times—gave birth to the island dwellings. In that case 
we would suppose that their development dates back to 
the unsettled events which immediately followed the with- 
drawal of the Roman soldiers, to whose protection the 
Romano-British population in the south-west of Scotland 
had been so long accustomed” (pp. 248 and 249). 
In support of this view he also remarks that 
