Waterland–People: On Structure and Origin of Crannogs ...

Chapter 3
Sites assessment
Implying that human observation and evolution is strongly interconnected with natural
events and their folklore and when researching lake settlements and the like it is necessary
to have a wider look at previous natural events like the rise and fall of the sea level or
tsunamis, the evolution of the climate - the environment ’water’ in a wide and early range
of contexts -, and at the same time search for possible ’mother’ islands who could prove
to be the ’mother’ of the whole idea. The persistence of crannogs in the British isles
over millennia is proof of a continuing idea that clearly involves all aspects of water, it’s
impression on human perception and its value.
3.1 Environment
The environmental evidence is sparse but remains an ongoing field of research, as recent
studies in sea–level change around Orkney coasts show. There is a definite need for
information as it is becoming clearer that sites of earliest occupation of the Orkney
Islands may be generally submerged due to the Orkney Island’s location at the outskirts
of glaciation. In fact that means that the sealevel rise is faster than the remaining uplift
which, compared to the rest of Scotland, results in the uplift value being negative.
3.1.1 Topography, streams and outlets
’The central part of West Mainland consists of a wide, almost flat, open plain in which
small, slaggish streams meander through a succession of low–lying, marshy hollows
and shallow lochs. [...] This central portion is some 40 square miles in extend and is
surrounded by a girdle of low hills which is breached on the south at the Bridge of Waith
where the waters from the Loch of Stennes enter the sea through the channel known
as The Bush. It is by this exit that the main drainage of the area is discharged, though
15