Visitors flock to crannog centre

Nov 30 2007

AS THEIR woven hazel gates have closed for the season, the Iron Age team at the Scottish Crannog Centre are celebrating a remarkable and hugely successful 10th anniversary year featuring record-breaking visitor numbers, European links and study tours, and a haul of top awards.

The buzz began in pre-season, when the Centre formally joined seven other European archaeological open air museums in a Culture 2000 project known as liveARCH (www.liveARCH.eu). The aim of the three year project is to share best practice and skills between partners in Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland and Sweden.

Following the launch of the project at the Eindhoven Historic Openlucht Museum in the Netherlands in January, the Crannog Crew hosted the first congress in Pitlochry in March focusing on visitor engagement and interpretation. The meeting brought considerable economic benefit to the wider Highland Perthshire area, and fostered pan-European project plans, ideas and friendships.

Dr Nicholas Dixon, research director of the Kenmore centre, said “We are very proud to be recognised for our work in this way. We look forward to learning from our partners and to helping position Scotland at the forefront of public archaeology and heritage interpretation on the international stage.”

The Iron Age team went on to offer around 50 events, inspired by archaeological discoveries, ancient traditions relating to festivals, agricultural cycles and the environment, and the craft skills of Tayside’s loch-dwellers. In tribute to these ancestors, the Crannog Crew organised a Go Native! Festival to mark the official date of the Centre’s 10th anniversary. Opened by MSP John Swinney on the 19th July, the 4 day celebrations featured prehistoric cooking, wood and metal-working, hunting and fishing equipment, textiles and other skills.

In recognition of the team’s efforts to minimise impact on the environment and to provide visitors with a top quality experience, the Scottish Crannog Centre has been awarded a highly scored Gold Award from the Green Tourism Business Scheme, and has again been awarded the prestigious 5 Star rating from VisitScotland.

These tributes round off an incredibly rewarding year, reflected also in the significant increase in visitors throughout the season. Numbers peaked in July and August with a 20 per cent increase in both months, before settling down to a 12 per cent increase overall. This means a new record for the Scottish Crannog Centre with a footfall of nearly 30,000 visitors.

The team now face a busy winter of maintenance and the development of new resources and programmes for 2008. Volunteers are always welcome.

For further information contact 01887 830583 or www.crannog.co.uk