The Outer Hebrides: Crannogs, Cereals, and Connectivity

Dive & Dig

Join Professor Lucy Blue as she discovers why the loch waters in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland are peppered with hundreds of artificial islets, known as crannogs. Here she speaks to a director of The Islands of Stones project team, Professor Fraser Sturt from the University of Southampton who has been investigating these small islands built of stones and layers of timbers. Originally thought to be settlements dating to the Late Bronze-Age and medieval periods, their work reveals they are a succession of accumulated settlements dating back 6000 years to Neolithic Britain. Were they constructed as defences, burial grounds or for ceremonial purposes? Among the well-preserved pottery found in the surrounding waters are pots from the Orkney Islands demonstrating the connectivity between the island chains. While scientific analysis of pot residues reveal cereals and dairy products cooked up to produce a kind of porridge!