- The Iron Age sees the first evidence in South West Scotland for the use of horses as a means of transportation. Bridle bits of the snaffle type have been found in isolation from sites including Lochspouts crannog and as single finds from locations such as Burnswark. Finds of harness fittings that include terrets (‘rein guides’), such as the hoard from Middlebie, have been used to infer that small horses or ponies were used to pull wheeled vehicles. Matching pairs of equipment are a regular occurrence, comprising left and right snaffle bits with four terrets, two of which would be placed to either side of the horse’s spine on a wooden yoke. These infer that two small horses of comparable size would have been used to pull a light vehicle such as a chariot. Chariot burials have been found in eastern England and South East England, confirming this hypothesis, but this burial tradition has not been identified in South West Scotland.
- Skeletal remains from outwith the region indicate that the horses were small, about the size of some modern native breeds, which stand at around 10 and a half hands high at the withers (the point where the neck meets the back). Modern Dartmoor or Welsh Mountain ponies provide good examples for comparison. Before the development of modern horse collars, the use of horses as draught animals was limited, and the restriction of horses for use by a privileged elite is supported by the decorative nature of their fittings. Objects like the Auchendolly terret and contents of the Middlebie hoard often feature striking enamelled or inlaid decoration. These objects fit comfortably within the wider group of decorative metalwork that is so characteristic of the Iron Age in South West Scotland. The Torrs chamfrein/pony cap is another potential item of horse equipment, though its exact usage has been argued over ever since the item was discovered in the 19th century. The use of horses as visually prestigious items appears to sit within a culture where status, and potentially cultural affiliations, were demonstrated through imposing pieces of body ornament (the necklet from Lochar Moss) and military equipment (the scabbard sheath from Bargany). There is no evidence that horses were routinely used as riding animals during the Iron Age.
- For most people – indeed, even for those equipped with a chariot team and sufficient ponies to enable its regular use – travelling by land would have remained as difficult and arduous as it would have been throughout prehistory. The countryside was being increasingly cleared of woodlands, making the landscape more open. But before the concerted efforts of the Roman military, there was no formal road system, and we have no insights into how people managed to move themselves and their possessions across the country. Some degree of mobility is inferred, with the potential for some kind of transhumance agriculture being undertaken in which upland areas were utilised for seasonal grazing by cattle and sheep during the summer months.
- Navigation by maritime and onshore craft was certainly possible, and it may have been the easiest way of travelling longer distances, given the right conditions. Certainly, there is evidence that the maritime havens of Luce Bay and Irvine Bay were still utilised, though we do not have evidence of any seagoing craft from within the region. The presence of Roman material culture in small quantities suggests its acquisition locally from a resident Roman military or administrative presence, rather than long-distance trade with partners located further afield.
- What there is now plenty of evidence for is logboats. Several dating to the Iron Age have been recovered, often in association with the crannog sites that proliferate in Galloway and Ayrshire. One complete logboat and the fragmentary remains of a second were recovered from Loch Arthur, which has also revealed a crannog (Henderson and Cavers 2011). The complete example was particularly unusual as its prow was fashioned in the form of a carved animal head: radiocarbon dating placed it between 355 BC and AD 125, though it is believed to have originated towards the later part of this date range (Henderson and Cavers 2011, 105).
- The construction of logboats within the region, and across mainland Scotland as a whole, is a long-lived tradition that can be traced back into at least the Early Bronze Age, but it is only the Iron Age that has revealed surviving examples in reasonable numbers. Oak was favoured for the construction of these vessels: the internal heartwood would have been hollowed out by tools such as axes or through burning (sometimes a combination of the two), giving a simple vessel that could have been used on lochs or other bodies of still water.