Coracle Building Feature - Published 22nd February 2006

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Coracles have been used in the UK for centuries. They are a very simple type of keel-less boat made from thin ash or willow laths covered with bleached calico and then waterproofed with a mixture of linseed oil and pitch. Just large enough to support one person, they were often used for fishing. The use of two coracles, one on either side of a river, with a fine mesh net slung between them drifting with the current, became so successful at catching fish that coracle licences had to be restricted to conserve fish stocks.

There are two main types of coracle which can be readily identified.

i) The Severn style coracle - an oval craft weighing about 20lb (<10kg)

ii) The Welsh style or Teifi coracle, a slightly larger and heavier craft about 32lbs (<15kg)

On the Teifi coracle there is a distinguishable bow and stern, the stern being more upright and flatter than the bow. The Severn coracle, however, is more of an oval shape, the bow and stern being symetrical.

The Teifi coracle is made of willow for the frames and hazel for the gunwales (the top edge of the craft). A seat of red deal or any suitable wood completes the frame. Willow rods about 1 1/2" (38mm) diameter are split (or cleaved) down the middle with a billhook and then smoothed using a drawknife. The willow is clamped on a device called a shavehorse for this process. Cleaving the rods makes sure that the grain of the wood goes along the laths thus keeping the strength of the wood. Green wood (unseasoned) is used as this state is still very pliable.

Photos feature an even older design of coracle dating back to the iron-age, using full round laths (not split) and a far deeper gunwale. Consequently the photographed craft is substantially heavier than its more 'modern' Welsh and Severn equivalent.