The Iron Age

The Iron Age in Scotland lasted from around 800 BC to AD 400. The start of the Iron Age is marked by the introduction of iron-working technologies. People in Britain made metals from the Bronze Age onwards, but iron is harder and more durable than bronze, and more difficult to make; the Iron Age heralded a new era of metal-working technology.

The transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age was gradual, occurring over centuries. People living at that time didn’t use the term Iron Age; this is is a name that archaeologists gave that period many centuries later, to help us break the past into manageable chunks.

Making an Impression

Iron Age architecture was designed to make an impact. Hillforts were impressive undertakings. Other Iron Age constructions included brochs (tall drystone towers), duns (massive drystone buildings) and crannogs (structures built in and around lochs and wetlands, whether on natural or artificial islands, or raised up on stilts). While the first hillforts were built in the late Bronze Age, the Iron Age is when hillforts really gained popularity. 

Most buildings in prehistory were circular in plan; the roundhouse was the standard building of the day. These structures could be used as domestic homes, industrial workshops or farm buildings. Most had a single doorway and a central hearth, which formed the focus of the home: it was where people cooked, gathered, stayed warm. The internal space may have been divided with woven wattle panels or screens, to create activity zones.

 Social Structures

Those who built and lived in Iron Age forts may have exerted some control over the people who lived in smaller settlements below. They were perhaps obliged to share their yield with those of the fort, in return for protection and allegiance in times of trouble.

Iron Age society was tribal. However, Iron Age life did not revolve around warfare. While disputes certainly occurred between tribes, and battles and skirmishes took place as a result, most people’s everyday lives would have been taken up by running the home and farm.

 Getting Around

Iron Age people relied on both land and water-based modes of transport to get around. There was no road system in place in the Iron Age, so most journeys were carried out either on foot (or hoof), or by water.

Blairdrummond Moss, not far from Callander, has yielded significant clues to prehistoric travel and transport. Firstly, a wooden cart or wagon wheel dating to around 1000 BC (in the Bronze Age) was discovered there in the 19th century. Carts were pulled by oxen and, later, by horses/ponies. Secondly, the wet conditions in the moss have preserved sections of a wooden trackway thought to be prehistoric in date. It is not the only example of its kind: the Sweet Track is a narrow walkway in Somerset, built over 6000 years ago during the Neolithic period; and the Corlea Track in Ireland dates to 148 BC, in the Iron Age. Though very different in character - the Sweet Track is narrow while the Corlea Track is a broad construction more road-like in its proportions - these are both examples of ways in which people found ways to cross expansive wetlands. The Blairdrummond Moss trackway was formed of tree trunks laid lengthways, over which were smaller branches and then brushwood to form a route some 3.4m wide. Various stretches of the track were found accidentally throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Newbridge chariot burial is one example of a prehistoric vehicle; you’ll find images of a reconstruction here. It gives a glimpse of what an Iron Age chariot might have looked like, though it is an exceptional find and not representative of everyday life and transport in the Iron Age!

In the absence of a road system, water-based transport may often have been quicker than travel over land. Rivers, lochs and the ocean all provided opportunities for travel by boat, whether in lightweight vessels such as coracles, or more substantial logboats made from hollowed out tree trunks.

Dunmore’s location close to Loch Venachar, and the rivers that lead in and out of the loch, would have contributed to its desireablity.

The Roman Iron Age

Elsewhere in Britain, the period between AD 43 and AD 410 is known as the Roman period since large chunks of the country were occupied, and controlled, by the Romans. Roman culture pervaded Iron Age society, causing ripples of change to all sort of elements of life. However, Scotland felt the influence less keenly. The Romans never gained firm control of southern Scotland beyond Hadrian’s Wall (which runs from the Solway to the Tyne), and were never dominant to the north of the Antonine Wall (which runs from the Clyde to the Forth). Instead of having a Roman period in Scotland, we sometimes refer to the Roman Iron Age, since ways of life didn’t change a huge amount in northern Britain despite the Roman occupation (and Romanisation, to some extent) of southern Britain.

There are lots of reasons as to why the Romans didn’t take Scotland into their empire. We might like to think that it is because the people of Iron Age Scotland were too fierce, and the Romans were scared off. However, it is probable that the Romans didn’t think it was worth the effort; they didn’t think Scotland could provide enough resources (raw materials, food supplies, people) to make a rigorous campaign worthwhile. We can trace the Romans’ explorations into Scotland through their camps (temporary settlements that the army used as they journeyed into new territories), which stretch as far as Inverness. There is one just to the west of Callander, at Bochastle. Roman influence, however, is seen right up to the northern isles in traded Roman goods.