Loch Leven

NO10SW 13 c. 13 01

'An ancient canoe, still (1901) to be seen in the entrance hall of Kinross House (NO10SW 12) was found embedded in Lochleven near the Castle Island after lowering the surface of the loch by extensive drainage operations upwards of 60 years ago'.

R B Begg 1901.

Mrs Purvis-Russell Montgomery of Kinross House, has no knowledge of this canoe. It is not in Kinross Museum, and no further information was found relating to it.

Visited by OS (WDJ), 19 December 1963.

Burns-Begg mentions that a logboat was revealed when the level of Loch Leven was lowered by drainage operations. It was taken to Kinross House and is no longer to be seen. The date of discovery is unclear from his accounts but it was probably within the period 1830-2 when the level of the loch is said to have fallen by about 4'6" (1.4m) following the construction of the New Gullet drainage canal.

In Perth Museum and Art Gallery there are two timber fragments which have possibly formed part of this boat. One of them (accession number PMAG K1972.42) is roughly pyramidal in shape and measures about 130mm square at the base by about 90mm in height. It has suffered badly from splitting and its origin cannot now be determined but its thickness suggests that it may have formed part of the bow. The other fragment (accession number PMAG K1972.286) measures up to 360mm by 230mm by 80mm and may be identified (fig. 23) as the badly-split remains of the aftermost part of the floor of a logboat. There is a pronounced round-down at one end and the worn remains of a transom-groove are recognisable; this measures about 120mm in breadth at the top, 90mm in breadth at the bottom, and about 30mm in depth.

R Burns-Begg 1887; R B Begg 1888; R Burns-Begg 1901; N H Walker 1980; R J C Mowat 1996, visited August 1987.