Crannogs

Saturday Greetings to you! 

Today's April 9th post is all about Crannogs.

I’ve blogged before about crannogs, Bronze into Iron Age dwellings built over water, but in Before Beltane I’ve taken crannog dwelling to a new level.

Crannog -Loch Tay before it burned down

Before Beltane takes place in northern Britannia in the year 71 (AD). Houses at that time in northern Britannia were most likely to have been of roundhouse construction, some of them (especially in Scotland) built over water on crannogs which were ‘islands’ of artificial construction. Some crannog roundhouse dwellings were built only a short distance from the loch shore on a log platform, connected by a log walkway.

Scotland was home to many crannogs. For example, Loch Tay in Scotland has 18 identified crannogs around its shoreline. Some other lochs (e.g. Loch Lomond) has islands which are thought to be artificial and which are sited well-into the body of water. These may have had roundhouses/other house structures on them. Whether only one roundhouse was on an artificial crannog island is subject to conjecture, but crannog dwellings were definitely a feature of Bronze and Iron Age Scotland. It’s thought that some of these dwellings were renovated, and renewed, on site even well into the middle ages. (Banchory, Aberdeenshire, Loch of Leys)

inside a crannog- Loch Tay

I had already thoroughly described roundhouse and crannog dwelling living in Book 1 of my Celtic Fervour series, The Beltane Choice. When writing about crannogs in Before Beltane, Prequel to the Celtic Fervour Series, I treated dwelling on an artificial island slightly differently. Nara of Tarras, in Book 1 – The Beltane Choice – speaks of being expunged from the nemeton home of the priestesses, which sets her on a totally-new future way of life. In Before Beltane, I was able to give a better description of her former island sacred nemeton home.

In Nara’s story, an artificial crannog island has been created on what is named the Lochan of the Priestesses of Dôn. In antiquity, the size of the island was slowly and painfully increased by copious infills of stones and earth, ferried over from the shore in small coracle boats. The resulting island of the priestesses has grown to be large enough to build a cluster of roundhouses of different sizes on it.  The High Priestess, Swatrega,  lives in the largest one which also doubles up as the meeting hall of all of the priestesses and acolytes who live at the nemeton.

It is in the roundhouse of Swatrega that Nara’s life is shattered!

You can find out more about this in the Before Beltane eBook that you can Pre-Order  HERE,  or buy a paperback HERE.

Happy Reading.

Slàinte!