Page "Crannog" Paragraph 6

If one employs the strict, limited definition of crannog which requires the use of timber, then sites in the Western Isles are stricken from the discussion.

This narrowness of definition has caused some debate over the years, and its result, the exclusion of Hebridean sites from most major syntheses, can be seen as a shortcoming which, due to superficial typologies, results in the failure to unite these sites, whose inhabitants shared the common habit of living on water.

If not " true " crannogs, small occupied islets ( often at least partially artificial in nature ) may be referred to as island duns, although rather confusingly, 22 islet-based sites are classified as ' proper ' crannogs due to the different interpretations of the inspectors or excavators who drew up field reports Canmore search for crannog in the Western Isles Hebridean island dwellings or crannogs were commonly built on both natural and artificial islets, usually reached by means of a stone causeway.

The visible structural remains are traditionally interpreted as a dun, or by the more recent terminology as an Atlantic roundhouse.

This terminology has gained in recent popularity when describing the entire range of robust, drystone structures which exist in later prehistoric Atlantic Scotland.