Out with the old and in with the new! 2024 has been disappointing for the Club at the Highland Folk Museum. As previously reported, our ‘home’ there, the Mill Pond, was badly damaged by Storm Arwen in November 2021. We had limited paddling through 2023 but by the start of the 2024 season the Pond had been losing so much water, even through the winter rain and snow, conditions had become such that even our jetty was completely out of the water and had become very dangerous for visitors. It had to be removed.
This meant that on health and safety grounds we could not let visitors on to the water. All we could do was give demonstrations on a small area of water and of course talk to folk. It was quite frustrating, especially for visitors who had been in previous years and wanted another paddle. However, our engagement with so many interested visitors has resulted in a number of follow-up requests for more information about coracles – from as far afield as South Africa, the USA, the Netherlands, and within the UK.
Happily, at the beginning of October, after visitor numbers had lessened and the breeding ducks and moorhens had left, what water remaining was drained completely. Diggers were brought in and the whole area around the Pond has been dug out. A new liner has been installed and the Pond refill will be complete, we hope, by the end of the month, water coming from a new borehole.
Material for a new floating jetty is now on site and we will build as soon as the water is up to the proper level. Fingers crossed that it all goes well.
Meanwhile, several members have had paddles out on the River Spey and Loch Insh and at least have had some fun.
One of our members, Jeremy, has been working all summer on attempting to build a replica of a coracle based on an archaeological description of a Bronze Age burial site found at Barn’s Farm at Dalgety Bay in Fife. The site was discovered in 1975 and amidst some stone burial cists were three bowl shaped depressions which were later considered to be coracle burials. One in particular has a hull very close in shape and profile to the Teifi coracle. Unfortunately, the gunwhale is completely missing and construction from the drawings and description we have of the excavation has been a challenge. Watch this space!
