At the meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in June 1875, Robert Love, Esq., F.S.A. Scot., gave a description of a crannog in the loch of Kilbirnie, of which the following is a condensed account.--(_Proceedings_, vol. xi. p. 284.) "There was a little island in the upper end, and near the north-west corner of this loch; and most who knew it when entire, 50 or 60 years ago, are agreed that it was essentially circular, although some little pointed towards the south. It was elevated, at least in modern times, above the water of the loch in its ordinary state, from 2 to 4 feet; and on the surface was entirely overlaid with stones of the boulder sort, not large, and which might have been got on the margin of the lake. Some say that beams or logs, and piles of wood were noticed during protracted droughts on or along the margin of the island, but if they were, it notwithstanding never occurred to any one that the island was other than natural. In the summer of 1868, however, its artificial nature became quite evident. This was occasioned in consequence of the slag from the furnaces having been for several years, and in great bulk, deposited within the loch to the west of and behind this island, which sunk down through the soft yielding mud deposit there, which is of the great depth of 30 or 40 feet, a fact that was ascertained by borings near the site of the furnaces. This had the effect, while it overlay and bore down that part of the island which is towards the west, of moving the east portion of it forward and into the loch, and, at the same time, of upheaving it so that it was elevated considerably above the water. In consequence, this part spread hither and thither and split up; many fissures were the result, both in the artificial deposits and in the underlying mud, which were of a depth that varied from 4 to 6 feet; and it was by means of these that the various artificial strata became disclosed.