Tragedy at the Scottish Crannog Centre
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 21 June 2021
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
From the Neolithic period to the early 18th century Crannogs were a feature of Scottish, Welsh and Irish lakes and estuaries enabling a unique way of life. These unusual dwellings consisted of an artificial island constructed over and in the water. The Scottish Crannog Cente on Loch Tay had a wonderful reconstruction of a crannog however just over a week ago it was very sadly destroyed by fire in just a few minutes. Fran Houston, the curator at the Scottish Crannog Centre, is today's guest on the podcast. She explains what happened in the fire but also the history of crannogs, what they were used for, why they were present in our landscapes for so long and their plans to build not just one but three new crannogs!
You can out more information about the Scottish Crannog Centre by clicking here and you can make a donation to help with the rebuilding of their crannog via their JustGiving page.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, everyone. Welcome to Dance and No History. We've got an emergency episode that I want |
| 0:03.7 | to put into the feed today because we learned just over a week ago of a terrible accident |
| 0:08.0 | that happened to one of the great museums heritage centres in the UK. The Scottish |
| 0:12.9 | Crannock Centre on the shores of Loch Tay in Scotland is a very special place. Crannocks |
| 0:18.5 | are a form of stilted dwelling that were common in May the locks of this part of Scotland |
| 0:24.4 | in the bronze and iron ages and continue to be built back through to almost the modern |
| 0:29.2 | period. I was lucky enough 20 years ago, my first job's in television or sent by the BBC |
| 0:33.8 | to go and dive on the archaeological remains of a Crannock in Loch Tay. So I've been |
| 0:38.5 | here at the centre. It's a place that's very special to me. And we learned on Friday |
| 0:42.2 | night that there was a catastrophic fire and their reconstructed Crannock, their wooden |
| 0:46.1 | reconstructed Crannock burnt down completely in the space of just minutes. |
| 0:51.2 | The good news is twofold, I suppose one is that no historic artefacts, no archaeology |
| 0:56.8 | was destroyed in the fire, it was all reconstructed material, it's a small blessing and the other |
| 1:02.0 | is that donations have been pouring in. And I'll ask you if you listen to this podcast |
| 1:05.6 | and I move by what you hear, please follow the link in the description of this podcast |
| 1:09.8 | review. It pods or head over to my Twitter feed and click my post and it will take you |
| 1:14.8 | to a place where you can contribute as well. I know there's lots of worthy causes at |
| 1:18.4 | that moment but it would be great to get a Scottish Crannock centre back up and running. |
| 1:23.3 | In this podcast it is very busy time, I was lucky enough to have the curator at the Scottish |
| 1:27.8 | Crannock Centre friend Houston on the post come and talk me through the fire but also |
| 1:31.8 | what crannigs are and what the archaeology is telling us at the moment is a very exciting |
| 1:35.9 | part of archaeology looking at these sites. As it's reconstructed or when it's finished |
... |
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