Traditional wooden boat to sail to sea in colourful rowing event

A wooden boat, traditionally used only by the fishermen of the Shannon, is to sail from a West Cork town to the sea for the first time this weekend.

Thu, 21 May, 2015 - 01:00

Áilín Quinlan

The Shannon Angling Cot — which was in use by Shannon fisherman for 600 years until the 1980s — will participate in a colourful rowing race which will start at the West Cork Hotel in Skibbereen on Saturday morning and finish at the seaside village of Baltimore.

After the race, which takes place as part of the annual popular Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival down the Ilen River and features a variety of curraghs, the winner will be presented with the first West Cork Hotel Perpetual Trophy for the River Race.

The annual festival of traditional boats has grown each year, as more boats visit and more and more local boats are restored or newly built with traditional skills and materials.

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Several thousand visitors and more than 70 craft are set to visit Baltimore this weekend. The bay is set to come alive with sailing races during Saturday and Sunday and visitors will have the opportunity to get a closer look at the boats, which raft up in the harbour in the evenings.

The festival runs until Sunday, getting under way tomorrow with the gathering of sailing boats in Baltimore and a talk from 5.30pm in Baltimore Castle by Karl Brady from the Underwater Archaeology Unit of the National Monuments Service on his discovery of Ireland’s earliest traditional boats.

Skibbereen will host a variety of curraghs, Limerick Gandelows and other traditional rowing boats, all of which will raft up on the pontoon at the West Cork Hotel.

The festival is running in association with Baltimore Seafood Festival, which will host a food market on Sunday.