Kenmore's award-winning Scottish Crannog Centre is going native in the countdown to its 10th anniversary celebrations. The occasion will be marked with a four-day extravaganza from July 19 to 22, featuring ancient technology, survival skills, and prehistoric and wild food cooking. The 'Go Native: Ancient Technology Fair' will have stalls including demonstrations by wilderness and bushcraft specialists lured from across Scotland.
     The recreated Iron Age crannog was built by the Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology as an experimental project based directly on the results of their excavations of the 2,600-year-old site of Oakbank Crannog in Loch Tay. Following a steep learning curve to acquire skills like tree felling, hauling and manoeuvring 12 metre long tree trunks, the small band of volunteer builders also had to rediscover the ancient arts of pile-driving by hand, round wood joinery techniques, thatching, and making cordage from natural fibres. The Crannog replica was completed and opened to the public in the summer of 1997 after two and a half years of intermittent building. The modern day Crannog crew decided the anniversary celebrations should also serve as a tribute to the skills of their ancestors.
     A 'wild' food festival will launch the event on Thursday, July 19, featuring stone pit and open fire cooking along with Iron Age ovens, showcasing some of Perthshire’s finest organic meat, drink, and seasonal produce. There will be also music in the crannog, featuring Perthshire musicians as part of the Scottish Crannog Centre’s summer concert series. The specialist skills demonstrations will run all weekend from Friday, July 20 and include ancient technology and backwoods crafts such as how to make cordage, glues, bone and antler tools, fishing hooks, baskets and bark containers, weapons and many other items of great use in wilderness living, using only natural raw materials. Other demonstrations will include metal-working, flint-knapping, and dying, spinning and weaving wool using ancient techniques.
     Booking is required for some of the events and taster sessions. The Summer Music Sessions series continues every Thursday evening through the end of August. For further details contact the Scottish Crannog Centre on 01887 830583 or visit www.crannog.co.uk

Source: ic Perthshire (13 July 2007)