ANCIENT
SCOTTISH LAKE-DWELLINGS
OR CRANNOGS.
Edinburgh: Printed by Thomas and Archibald Constable
FOR
DAVID DOUGLAS.
| LONDON | HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. |
| CAMBRIDGE | MACMILLAN AND BOWES. |
| GLASGOW | JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS. |
LOCHSPOUTS (LOOKING NORTHWARDS)
ANCIENT
SCOTTISH LAKE-DWELLINGS
OR CRANNOGS
WITH A SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER ON
REMAINS OF LAKE-DWELLINGS IN ENGLAND
BY
ROBERT MUNRO, M.A.
M.D., F.S.A. SCOT.
EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS
1882
All rights reserved.
PREFACE.
In publishing this work few prefatory remarks arerequired, beyond an explanation of the circumstanceswhich led to its assuming the present form. Theprimary object contemplated was to place beforegeneral readers a record of some remarkable discoveriesrecently made in the south-west of Scotland,in a department of Archæology hitherto little known,and of which carefully prepared reports have alreadyappeared in the second and third volumes of theCollections of the Ayrshire and WigtownshireArchæological Association.
As it was at the instigation of R. W. Cochran-Patrick,Esq., M.P., that the explorations which ledto these discoveries were originally undertaken, so itwas also with him that the proposal to issue thesereports in a handy volume originated. It occurred,however, to me, that, considering how little had beenknown of Scottish Lake-Dwellings in general, andthat even this little was only accessible to the mem[vi]bersof a few learned Societies, it would be a moresatisfactory undertaking to incorporate with theoriginal reports, a résumé of the observations madeby previous writers and explorers, so as to present tothe public a complete compendium, as it were, of thewhole subject.
The outcome of this idea is the volume now published,which, accordingly, aims at comprising all thatis actually known of ancient British Lake-Dwellingsup to the present time.
Such being its comprehensive scope, perhaps anapology ought to be here made for its many shortcomings;but this, I trust, will appear less necessarywhen I explain that it is the result of the occupationof such scraps of time as could be spared during thelast two or three years from the active duties of abusy professional life.
Instead of attempting to interpret the referencesmade to Lake-Dwellings by previous writers (ma