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Clachtoll broch is one of the most spectacular Iron Age settlements
on the northern mainland of Scotland. When it became clear that the
structure was threatened by coastal erosion, community heritage
group Historic Assynt launched a major programme of conservation
and excavation works designed to secure the vulnerable structure
and recover the archaeological evidence of its occupation and use.
The resulting excavation provided evidence of a long and complex
history of construction and rebuilding, with the final, middle Iron
Age occupation phase ending in a catastrophic fire and collapse of
the tower by the early years of the first century AD. The internal
deposits span perhaps 50 years of the broch’s final occupation
and were remarkably well preserved, with no evidence for secondary
re-use or disturbance after the fire. As a result, the excavation
provides a remarkable snapshot of life in Iron Age Scotland, with
an artefact assemblage attesting to daily agricultural life as well
as long-range contacts that sets the broch within a wider Atlantic
community. Specialist analysis of the artefactual and
palaeoenvironmental evidence coupled with detailed analysis of the
structure in its local geographical context combine to provide a
major new contribution to the archaeology of north-west Scotland,
with wider implications for our understanding of late prehistoric
society in northern Britain. This report comprises the results of
the archaeological investigations at Clachtoll, compiled by a team
of archaeologists and specialists from AOC Archaeology Group, and
brings together evidence from a range of specialist analyses as
well as environmental and landscape investigations.
Cults Loch, at Castle Kennedy in Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland,
lies within a landscape rich in prehistoric cropmark sites and
within the loch itself are two crannogs, one of which has been the
focus of this study. A palisaded enclosure and a promontory fort on
the shores of the loch have also been excavated. The Cults Loch
crannog is only the second prehistoric site in Scotland to be dated
by dendrochronology and analysis has revealed the very short
duration of activity on the crannog in the middle of the 5th
century BC. Bayesian analysis of the dating evidence from all the
excavated sites has yielded a chronological sequence which suggests
a dynamic and sequential settlement pattern across the landscape.
The implications of this sequence for later prehistoric settlement
throughout south-west Scotland are explored. The Cults Loch
Landscape Project arose out of the Scottish Wetland Archaeology
Programme (SWAP), the objective of which is to fully integrate the
wetland archaeological resource of Scotland into the more
mainstream narratives of 'dryland' archaeology. The Cults Loch
project has sought to bridge this apparent divide between 'wetland'
and 'dryland' by focusing on a wetland site, the crannog, which
lies at the centre of a prehistoric landscape, rather than being
peripheral to it. Thus, the wealth of well-preserved evidence from
the crannog, particularly the rich ecofactual assemblages, as well
as the higher chronological resolution possible through the
dendro-dating of waterlogged timbers, are brought to bear on our
understanding of the evidence from the cropmark sites around the
loch. The role and function of crannogs are also explored via the
relationship between the crannog in Cults Loch and its social and
physical landscape.
The focus of this research is on the later prehistoric period, from
the earliest constructional origins of western Scotland crannogs in
the late Bronze Age through to their apparent emergence as status
dwellings in the Early Historic period after the mid first
millennium AD. The aim is to investigate the ways in which crannogs
functioned as settlements, both on a practical, economic as well as
a symbolic and socio-cultural level. Throughout, the primary
concern is with contextualisation, considering crannogs within
their correct chronological and cultural context through the
critical analysis of dating evidence as well as the identification
of the relevant ritual and symbolic themes- i.e. the Iron Age
veneration of water. It is argued in this book that the
stereotypical view of a crannog that has largely been derived from
the results of work carried out on Irish crannogs has been
misleading in the case of the Scottish sites, tending towards a
view of crannogs as high-status strongholds, often as royal seats.
Though crannogs were certainly a significant feature of the Early
Historic period in Scotland, there is as yet no evidence of direct
connections to royalty in this period and, based on the currently
available evidence, the characterisation of crannogs as high status
sites is misguided in the context of their late Bronze and Iron Age
origins.
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