‘Indeed.’ He snatches up a pencil and a piece of paper and begins to make a sketch of what the settlement would have looked like. ‘There was the long hall, here, like this. A building about the size of a barn, if you can picture that, single story, but quite a high roof, sloped to keep the good Welsh rain off it. They would have used the hall for important gatherings, celebrations, meetings of various visiting princes and so on. Historians have established that the palace was built for Prince Brynach, who was ruler of the region at the time. He and his family and extended family and guards would have lived there. And, of course, if the community were to come under attack the rest of the villagers would leave the shore and hurry onto the crannog to take refuge in the hall. We think there was another building here, probably providing living quarters for more soldiers and their families, with room for some of the more prized beasts to be stabled. Next to that, at an angle’—he squints through his glasses as he makes rough marks on the paper’—like this. That would have been the blacksmith’s workshop. Very important.’

‘For horseshoes, I’m guessing.’

‘Partly, though not all the horses would have been shod. What made the smithy so crucial was that this was where weapons were forged. Swords, daggers, shields, helmets and so forth … Those were dangerous times. The prince had to be ready to defend his territory.’

‘You certainly seem to know a lot about it.’

‘Oh—’ he shakes his head—‘a historian can never know enough about his pet subject. The lake has always fascinated me, as it did my wife. Greta was an anthropologist.’ He waves an arm at the more exotic artifacts in the room. ‘Most of what you see here was collected on her travels. It was she who first fell in love with the lake. She insisted we move here. Said she felt an affinity with the place. And I’m very glad of it. The lake provided us with so much to think about. People have lived here for centuries. Millennia, in fact. It is such an ideal spot for a settlement, d’you see? Fresh water, fish, the shelter of those hills over there, fertile soil; it has it all. Prince Brynach, when he built the crannog for his royal dwelling, well, he knew what he was about. And, of course, there are so many lovely legends and myths attached to the place. It has its own magic, I think it fair to say. One could study it a lifetime and not know everything.’ He returns to the tea tray. ‘Now, sugar? Milk? Chocolate biscuit? And perhaps you’ll tell me what it is that a ceramic artist does?’