South-West Scotland Crannog Survey

South-west Scotland has numerous crannogs, man-made islands occupied mainly from the Iron Age but sometimes as late as the medieval period. AOC Archaeology Group staff have been investigating crannogs in south-west Scotland since 1989, including the excavation of Buiston crannog in Ayrshire, published by STAR in 2000.

The first phase of the South-West Scotland Crannog Survey established that submerged crannogs in the south-west, as well as their counterparts on drained land, were not necessarily stable but were in some instances rapidly decaying. The second phase of the survey, which began in 2002 and is being undertaken as part of the Scottish Wetlands Archaeology Programme, aims to establish an effective system of monitoring the rate of organic decay on crannogs in different environments (submerged and drained land) to provide accurate data on the sustainability of the wetland archaeological resource throughout south-west Scotland. This monitoring hopes to identify the mechanisms and causes of organic decay and using this information, steps can then be taken to preserve the resource through appropriate management strategies. Results of the South-West Scotland Crannog Survey have been published in a variety of archaeological journals and monographs including Archaeology from the Wetlands: Recent Perspectives.

AOC Project Directors: Anne Crone & Graeme Cavers
SWAP research partners: Jon Henderson (University of Nottingham Department of Archaeology ); Dr Malcolm Lillie (University of Hull, Dept of Geography)
Research Grants: Historic Scotland