Build Your Own Coracle, Or Small Boat Using Techniques Perfected More Than 2,000 Years Ago

In December of 1977, National Geographic published an articled titled: "The Voyage of the Brendan: Did Irish Monks Discover America?" by Tim Severin. The article talked about the history and the uses of the Irish curragh, a well-known cousin of the smaller coracle.

The British coracle is descended from the bitumen-painted "gaffa" of Iraq, and the hide-covered one-man boats of India and Tibet. Julius Caesar, in writing of his military campaigns in Spain, gives us the first written mention of these ancient boats. In 49 BC, with his communications and supply lines severed by flooding and downed bridges, he directed his men to build wickerwork boats covered with hides - the same kind of boats he had encountered during his raiding days in southwestern Britannia (England).

The coracle, due to its lightweight building materials, tends to ride on the water much like a cork. While its shallow draft makes it a bit unwieldy for the novice to control, it is the perfect choice when fishing in shallow, rocky streams where salmon and other fish abound. When balanced properly with the paddle, a coracle can be carried on your back for miles, its weight seemingly unnoticeable. Try doing that with a fiberglass or aluminum canoe!

Very few changes have been made in the building of coracles in the past 2,000 years, and most of these were regional; probably induced more by what materials were readily at hand than by actual "improvements" to the design. In Ironbridge, along the River Severn, sawn lathes were commonly substituted for the more traditional split ash or willow branches in the lattice framework. Animal hides began to be replaced by flannel cloth coated in tar or pitch around the late 16th century in this same area, when the production of flannel from mountain sheep became something of a local cottage industry.