76 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF ABERDEEN AND DISTRICT 
been that islands in Scottish lochs which have to-day every appearance of 
being natural have turned out on better investigation to be wholly arti- 
ficial, or true crannogs. 
In this north-eastern district crannogs are necessarily scarce since lochs 
are few, except among the mountains; but one, or possibly two, are still 
existent, and another is on record. ‘The last, in the Loch of Leys, Ban- 
chory in Kincardineshire, was examined when the loch was turned into 
dry land in the middle of last century. It measured about 65 yards in 
length and 30 in breadth. Kitchen vessels of bronze, a mill stone, antlers 
and bones of a red deer of great size, a small canoe of oak, and a boat 
about g ft. long were found. The other crannog site is Loch Kinnord. 
Two islands can be seen there, the larger one being about 100 yards in 
length by 70 in breadth and the smaller 25 yards in diameter. The latter 
is certainly wholly artificial, being formed of an arrangement of piles, 
beams and stones. ‘The larger island has not been definitely ascertained 
to have been originally a crannog, but certain significant facts could be 
mentioned connected with it which indicate that it wasso. Three canoes 
were recovered from the bottom of the loch at various times during last 
century, while a fourth is still submerged near the smaller island. ‘They 
are formed out of single logs of oak, and are 22, 29 and 30 ft. long. The 
breadth of the larger two is about 3 ft. A bronze jug, 103 in. high, with 
handle and spout, and similar to the one from Loch of Leys crannog, was 
found, and also a bronze spear-head, with a portion of the oak shaft 
remaining in the socket, 124 in. long, which is in the University Museum. 
Hill forts —The essential features of such early places of defence are 
their situation on the top of a hill, and the presence of a space, varying in 
size, enclosed by a circular rampart made of stone or by a concentric 
series of ramparts, with intervening trenches. In those called vitrified 
hill forts, parts of the stone walls show evidence of the action of fire, but 
the process by which vitrification was achieved is not altogether understood. 
Many examples of these exist in the district, and particular mention 
may be made of a few as specially worthy of attention. The sites are: 
the hill of Bennachie, Barrahill not far off, the Barmekin of Echt, the Tap 
o’ Noth, Dunnydeer near Insch (with remains of a later medieval castle 
in the interior), the last two being vitrified. 
Chronologically these forts belong to the same period as earth houses 
and crannogs. 
