Ancient Scottish textile hidden under a loch for 2,500 years to go on display

Daily Record

23-04-2025

Discovered in 1979 at the Oakbank Crannog, the textile is thought to be one of Britain's oldest surviving woven fabrics
A remarkably well-preserved Iron Age textile is going on public display for the very first time after being hidden beneath Loch Tay for nearly 2,500 years. The ancient fabric remnant was found back in 1979 after lying undiscovered for millenia.
Believed to be one of the oldest surviving pieces of woven fabric in Britain, the textile was discovered during excavations at the Oakbank Crannog, a reconstructed Iron Age dwelling that was perched on stilts above the loch in Perthshire.
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Natural preservation by silt at the bottom of the loch kept the rare find intact over the centuries, but until now, it was considered too delicate to exhibit. Thanks to a meticulous conservation and stabilisation process, funded by Museums Galleries Scotland, the textile can now be safely viewed by the public.
It is being showcased from Wednesday at the Scottish Crannog Centre, where it has taken pride of place in the Iron Age village, visitor centre and museum on the shores of Loch Tay. The precious relic is housed in a climate-controlled cabinet to ensure its protection for future generations.
Mike Benson, director of the Scottish Crannog Centre, said: 'We are absolutely thrilled to be able to invite the public to come and see this amazing find.
'This piece would have been made by a whole community, from the shearing of the sheep, to the processing and dyeing of the wool, to the weaving of the textile.
'Our centre today is very much about community and the one thing that unites all of us is our common humanity through the ages.
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'We're really looking forward to finding out what people make of this rare textile, which is part of our past but also a hugely important part of our present and future. We hope people will be drawn to see this exhibit, and the rest of our extensive collection, for years to come.'
Archaeologists at the University of Glasgow have dated the Oakbank Textile to between 480 and 390BC using radiocarbon analysis.
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Dr Susanna Harris, senior lecturer in archaeology at the university, said: 'There are very few early textiles of this date and we think this is the first one of this type, of 2/1 twill, in Scotland.
'Wool was such an important material in Scotland, it's been exciting to analyse this piece. It's great that the Scottish Crannog Centre has taken this step.
"It's really important finds like this go on display. It may be a small piece of textile but it tells us a lot about the heritage of Scottish textiles.'
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Crannogs, ancient homes built on stilts or stone over water, were once a common sight across Scotland, typically linked to the shore by a wooden bridge.
These unique dwellings date back to Neolithic times, with very few examples found outside Scotland and Ireland.
The Scottish Crannog Centre's own reconstructed crannog was tragically lost to a fire in 2021. But in a major step forward, the centre reopened last year on a larger site near Kenmore.
The team is now well underway with building a new crannog, using traditional and sustainable construction techniques to honour the site's historical roots.