Scottish Crannog Centre still 'finding feet' over a month on from re-opening
The crannog was destroyed in a fire in June 2021
The Scottish Crannog Centre re-opened to the public on the 1st April at a new site at Loch Tay.
The centre was plunged into turmoil after a fire in June 2021 destroyed the crannog.
After almost three years of rebuilding visitors are now making their way back to the Perthshire attraction, currently boasting seven Iron age structures.
Director Mike Benson says the new site is "magical". He said: "It's much bigger (than the old site). It's beautiful.
"You look right up the loch now as a Crannog dweller would have done. There's nothing in your eyeline that would make you think you weren't 2,500 thousand years ago.
"The backdrop of Drummond Hill, which is the hill behind where we are, it's just gorgeous. It's literally just a steep hill, the road and then our site and the loch. The whole thing is just magical."
After years of hard work he told us the reopening has brought a happy feeling. He said: "From that opening every day there's just a really lovely story, or a reflection, or another piece of scaffolding comes down or something really nice happens.
"I think the word is just happy and proud. Proud of everybody."
"Probably opened a month before we should have done"
Despite the excitement around the opening, Mike Benson admits it may have come too soon. He said: "We are still finding our feet, I'll be honest. It's a new site, with a new team.
"We probably opened a month before we should have done but we wanted to get open and show-off what we can do, so there's still little jobs to do. Still little signs to do, little bit of work in the toilets, the odd pothole in the car park that is still to be filled in.
"But, we're open and that's what we waned to be."
He continued: "Hopefully as each day goes by we're just sorting out the little snags.
"I suppose it's like buying a new house. The light in the bathroom doesn't work or the cupboard door doesn't quite fit right, we're in that sort of mode."
The construction of the Crannog is expected to go into the summer.
The director is telling us further work will take place in the future. He said: "This was always a reaction to the fire and we've called this project one.
"Project one was to get us up and running and to be delivering a fantastic experience for people. Once we've had a little bit of a break, and a cup of coffee, we'll be thinking about what project two might look like and start to fathom that out."