How to Build a Coracle Boat

Learn how to build and waterproof a coracle boat. Coracles have been made by people of many cultures for thousands of years.

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By Lynn Karlin
Learn how to build a coracle, an ancient boat design made of willow branches.

Learn how to build and waterproof a coracle boat. Coracles have been made by people of many cultures for thousands of years.

In 1978 I ran into a friend, Hugh Curran, at the coin-operated laundry in Ellsworth, Maine. He saw one of my handmade laundry baskets, and he remarked that it reminded him of a miniature version of the boats, or coracles, his uncle once had built in Ireland. They were used for salmon fishing on the rivers. The possibility of making such a boat, based on a basket form covered with hide or cloth, really appealed to me. Hugh wasn’t sure if anyone was still building coracles, but he wrote to his uncle to inquire.

Inspired by the Coracle

About the same time, National Geographic ran an article about the Irish curragh, a cousin of the smaller coracle, entitled “The Voyage of the Brendan: Did Irish Monks Discover America?” by Tim Severin (December 1977). My curiosity engaged, I began a search. I was fortunate enough to locate the only extensive book on the history and design of coracles, British Coracles and the Curraghs of Ireland, written in 1936 by the noted small craft historian James Hornell.

In June of 1986, I read an article in The New Yorker entitled “A Good Little Vessel” by Anthony Bailey. Eustace Rogers, the subject of Bailey’s article, was reputed to be the last coracle maker in England. Inspired by the description of his craft, I decided to build my own coracle.

  • Updated on Jun 13, 2022
  • Originally Published on Apr 1, 2003
Tagged with: boat, coracle, coracle boat, curragh, weaving
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