Visiting the Crannoch at loch Tay

I was exploring a lot on my days off, and one day after driving through Kenmore on my way to Aberfeldy to meet a friend for lunch at the Turkish cafe, I saw this turn-off with a sign saying something about  a crannoch, and decided to drive in on my way back to see what it was!
I loved Aberfeldy, where they had a lovely shop selling antique bed linen, and also beautiful tablecloths. There was also a charity shop with a variety of interesting books, and as I am quite a bookworm, it was wonderful to rummage around, and I have found some really good books there. I was lucky on this day, as I was looking for a plunger for my room, as mine had broken, and I hate instant coffee! What I found and paid only one pound for was a small gadget that filters the coffee through an assortment of holes, not needing a filter bag, and making one cup at a time. It was perfect!
The crannoch turned out to be a house on the loch, like the ones built thousands of years ago as dwellings for the iron age people, who built this kind of houses for security, but also as a sign of wealth. This one was reconstructed on Loch Tay, not far from Kenmore, according to evidence of tools and other artifacts found on the loch bed.
In the highlands of Scotland this crannogs were built from timber, supported in the loch by poles, but in places where timber was scarce, huge amounts of rocks were dumped into the lochs, creating a small island to built on. It was a good way of proptection from the enemy as well, as the entrance was a narrow kind of swinging bridge that could easily be defended.
I was lucky on my first visit, as the woman leading our tour was one of the divers, and she had first hand knowledge of things found underneath the cold water of loch Tay, and she also was passionate about her work, and she talked about her diving and her finds with so much gusto, and explained it in such a way that kept me riveted the whole time.
The crannogs were big inside, as it used to house large and extended families, and also their cattle and food for humans and animals for the winter. In the middle was a fireplace, but there was no opening in the roof for the smoke, as the smoke went up, and being hot, it stayed there until it filtered through the reed roof. The bedrooms were marked off with poles, and so was the pens for the cattle and other stuff.
Outside were woodworking tools which could turn legs for tables and chairs! These were ingenious wooden things with ropes tied to a tree, connecting the wooden pedals worked with their feet to the turning gadgets on top, and we all had a go to show our woodworking skills!
Then we were taught how to make a fire with, if I remember correctly, a stick turned between your hands at a furious speed, igniting a tiny piece of straw, which was then oh, so cautiously blown until it ignited the rest of the straw. I was not too skillful with that, and gave up after most had either also gave up, and a few had got it right! I must say, I have forgotten exactly how that was done.
It was incredible to me that even grain that fell from this crannochs was found after 2,500 years, still intact!