The coracle is a keeless wicker boat originally covered in animal hides and used in Britain by the Celtic tribes primarily for water transport before being later refined as a dedicated fishing boat by Welsh river netsmen. With the advent of woven fabrics such as flannel, canvas and later calico, heavy animal hide skins were replaced by pitched cloth to produce an altogether lighter and more practical working coracle that required less maintenance. On the fast flowing Welsh rivers, the circular bowl shape of the coracle was also replaced by blunter and more stable pear shaped coracles with flatter bottoms and straighter sides that were better able to cope both with the river conditions and the job in hand of landing heavy fish and nets.
An early coracle design and early beginnings for me too
My own involvement with coracles began in the 1980’s with primitive bowl coracles on my own wilderness survival courses. However I found such coracles to have limited stability when applied to practical tasks and so in the 1990’s I turned to what I felt were the superior coracles of the salmon and sewin , (sea trout), fishing craftsmen of rural Wales whose art I have the deepest respect for.
Myself with the framework of a traditional
Teifi coracle by master craftsman Ronnie Davies of Cenarth.
Originally I used my coracles for nature observation, angling, bushcraft applications and charity expeditions such as the 70 mile epic for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund on a dangerously swollen Afon Teifi in 1998. later I began to use coracles for own use seine netting of sea fish in sheltered coastal creeks and eel fishing before producing the Welsh Teifi coracle and my own Witham coracle commercially.
My daughter Emma and I with
the framework of one of my Teifi coracles.
The coracles I now produce are truly traditional premium products being hand crafted from cleft laths riven from pollarded willow poles with a billhook or with a riving axe before finishing on the shaving horse with a drawknife in the time honoured traditional Welsh way. This produces a coracle that retains as much strength and flexibility in the floor laths as possible as the fibres are left largely intact as the natural grain of the wood is followed. My coracles should not be confused with others produced more quickly and cheaply elsewhere, particularly outside Wales, using sawn laths whose fibres have been ripped by the saw blade and whose laths are usually nailed or stapled together. I do not personally entertain these more modern methods of coracle construction and only ever hand craft coracles using traditional cleft laths secured by their own natural tension and woven hazel withy gunwales that ooze authentic rustic charm.
Finishing cleft floor laths on the shaving horse.
My coracles are covered with traditional bitumen tar coated canvas which in my experience gives the optimum combination of good tough performance and lightness whilst being virtually maintenance free. Paddles are lovingly handcrafted from one solid billet of ash in the traditional way and incorporate a ‘claw’ as a further aid to carrying the coracle with the carrying strap. Finished coracles are also delivered complete with a handcrafted priest or knocker used to humanely kill caught fish as a reminder that you are purchasing a historical fishing craft rather than a recreational toy. Remember, not all coracles are the same and my prices reflect the additional time and skill required to produce what I strongly believe to be some of the finest coracles available.
Purchasing a coracle from me includes delivery and tuition in mainland Britain.