Article on the Spey currach

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03 September 2014

A new item appeared recently on BBC Alba on the Spey currach. You can watch it on the BBC News by clicking here. An English translation is provided below

“This is the oldest coracle in the world. Wickerwork, with a cowhide stretched over it. It’s kept today in Elgin Museum, but it was once used on the fastest river in the country – the Spey. She’s the only historic example left of a Scottish coracle."

“This is a new one, that was donated to the Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore, recently. The museum is very pleased to have it.”

(Museum representative) “This is a special coracle for the museum. It was donated by The Coracle Society. We hope, in the coming months, to display it at the museum for people to see.”

“Apart from the dug-out canoe, the coracle is the oldest type of boat in the world. They were once used in many areas of the Highlands. But it was on the Spey that they were last seen. A ferry boat, and a fishing boat, they are so light that they were carried from the house to the water. In Srath Spè, they were also used for forestry work.”

(Presenter) “At the height of their use in the second half of the 18th Century, fourteen men earnt very good money in these boats on the Spey, steering rafts of timber out of Abernethy Forest down to the river mouth, where they sold them to a building company from England.”

“This one, that was lent me by Elgin Museum, is far more stable than you’d think. On a river like the Spey, that’s important. I’ve been using them for years though. “Don’t try this at home”, as they say."