"A piece of wood with a cross burnt on it caused a good deal of
interest. This kind of cross is not uncommon in the older Irish forms.
It is a Greek cross with crosslets, and has been imagined to indicate a
time before the Latin Church entered."
[Illustration: Fig. 27.--Wooden Comb (2/3).]
A small island in Lochnell is supposed by Dr. Smith, after a slight
examination, to be another lake-dwelling.
CRANNOGS IN WIGTOWNSHIRE.
In the same year (1871), the Rev. George Wilson, Glenluce, contributed
a paper to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (_Proceedings_,
vol. ix. p. 368), on the Crannogs and Lake-Dwellings in Wigtownshire,
from which it would appear that all the lakes in this locality were
once literally studded with these island habitations. He enumerates
no less than ten lakes, each of which contained one or more crannogs.
The abundant remains of stakes, mortised beams, and the occasional
discovery of a "paved ford" connecting the islands with the shore,
sufficiently indicate their structural formation; but beyond this, and
the important fact of their existence in such numbers in the district,
they present nothing of a novel or special character calling for a more
detailed notice here. (See tabular statement, p. 245.)
The relics from the Wigtownshire crannogs, besides those already
noticed from Dowalton, are not many. They are two granite querns found
near a stone causeway leading to the crannog, a stone ring, 3/4 inch
internal diameter (Fig. 28), and a spindle-whorl of clay slate, 2
inches in diameter, from a crannog in Barlockhart Loch.--(_Proc. Soc.
Antiq. Scot._ vol. iii., new series, p. 267, and vol. xi. p. 583.)
[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Stone Ring (1/1).]
[Illustration: Fig. 29.--Stone Implement (1/2).]
Regarding stone implements, with circular central hollows wrought on
each face, one of which (Fig. 29) was found on a crannog in Machermore
Loch, Mr. Wilson writes thus:[21]--"These are of two types, elongated
and oval, approaching a circular form, and I wish to direct attention
to them, because, as yet, only eight have been reported in Scotland,
seven of them being from Wigtownshire."
On a later occasion, June 15th, 1881, Mr. Wilson, writing on the same
subject, says:--"In the volume of the Proceedings for 1879-80, at pages
127-129, I have described seven of these stones, and have stated that
only one specimen has been reported from any other part of Scotland. I
now direct attention to eleven more from Glenluce and Stony Kirk added
to the Museum, making eighteen from Wigtownshire."[22] (See notice of
another, found on the crannog in Lochspouts, at page 173.)
One of the crannogs referred to by Mr. Wilson, viz., that in "Loch
Inch-Cryndil," or Black Loch, was about the same time subjected to
a careful examination, a report of which was drawn up by Charles E.
Dalrymple, Esq., F.S.A. Scot. (_Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._ vol. ix. p.
388), from which I quote the following illustrative extracts:--
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