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Cambuskenneth

Logboat

Site Name Cambuskenneth

Classification Logboat

Alternative Name(s) Cambuskenneth Abbey; River Forth

Canmore ID 47261

Site Number NS89SW 28

NGR NS 805 939

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

C14 Radiocarbon Dating

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/47261

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Stirling
  • Parish Stirling
  • Former Region Central
  • Former District Stirling
  • Former County Stirlingshire

Archaeology Notes

NS89SW 28 805 939

See also NS89SE 78.

The remains of a logboat found in 1874 (Stirling Observer, 14 May 1874) sticking out of the mud of the River Forth about 50 yds below Cambuskenneth Abbey ferry are preserved at Cambuskenneth Abbey (NS89SW 4).

R W Feachem 1961.

In May 1874 a logboat was discovered in a meander of the River Forth to the E of Stirling during a period of low water level and at a point 'about fifty yards (46m) below Cambuskenneth Abbey Ferry...in a direct line between the Abbey Mill and Hood farm-steading'. The finder was William Johnston, a local publican and a 'great searcher of antiquities' who subsequently complained bitterly in the local newspaper about 'the clumsy manner in which the canoe has been excavated from the river's bed' with the result that a 'piece of her side, about five feet (1.5m) long, has been recklessly broken off'. The discovery was variously identified as that of a 'Caledonian' vessel and as that of a ferry boat which capsized tragically in 1529; some of the local people, however, claimed to remember the manufacture of its nails.

The vessel was found to measure about 20' (6.1m) in length although incomplete, the 'prow' having broken away. The beam was about 3' (0.9m) and a broken piece of the side was found inside it. The thickness of the sides and bottom was noted as between 1" and 2" (25mm and 50mm). Several holes were noted which had 'evidently been carefully plugged up' and the timber was identified as 'oak'. Evidence for damage in use was found; one of the sides had been patched near one of the ends with a piece of wood measuring about 8" (220mm) square which had been fastened in place with 'broad headed nails made of malleable iron'. The boat was re-recorded by Feachem about 1958.

The boat is displayed in Cambuskenneth Abbey (NS89SW 4), which is a monument in the guardianship of Historic Scotland; the bottom of the boat could not be inspected at the date of the visit. The pattern of radial splitting on one end suggests that it has been worked from a split half-section of log which was largely free of knots. Splitting has occurred along the junction of the sides and the bottom while warping and shrinkage have caused considerable distortion and large sections of the sides have broken away, including part of the portion that Feachem depicted as partly detached (and which is not drawn for publication). The patched section has not survived. There is extensive charring of unknown origin along the exterior of the higher surviving sides and within the interior there are isolated toolmarks which were probably made during recovery operations.

The boat measures 6.1m in length over all and up to 0.78m in beam, and the sides are nowhere more than 90mm high above the floor. Both of the ends are inclined upwards and the more rounded of them is identified by Feachem as the stern, but (on the assumption that the lower part of the trunk was used to form the stern) the direction of slant of the knot-holes suggests the converse to be the case. The flat bottom measures between 50mm and 75mm in thickness and the surviving portions of the sides considerably less.

The timber is extensively pierced by both knot-holes and holes for thickness-gauges. There are nineteen of the latter, disposed in three lines, one of them (bored vertically) down the centre-line and the other two (comprising holes bored down and out towards the sides) in the near right-angles between the sides and the floor. Each hole measures about 30mm in diameter. The possibility that at least some of these holes were intended to retain fitted ribs cannot be ruled out.

The McGrail morphology code of the boat is 332:1x1:332, making it of variant canoe (or possibly punt/barge) form. On the basis of the evidence available, the slenderness index is 7.8.

This boat has been dated by radiocarbon assay to 915 ? 45 ad (GrN-19281), which date may be calibrated to about 996 cal AD.

Stirling Observer 1874; Illustrated London News 1874; R W Feachem 1961; S McGrail 1987; R J C Mowat 1996, visited December 1987; information from Dr JN Lanting.

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