Closeburn

NX99SW 4 c. 906 921.

A canoe, 12' long, 2' wide and 15" deep, made out of a hollowed oak tree but with a loose sternboard, was found on the 5th April 1859 when Castle Loch, Closeburn, was drained. It was embedded in moss about 3' below the surface, towards the NE end of the loch, which is shown on 1st edition 1" at NX 906 921.

It was donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS in 1860, Accession no: IN 2).

J Adam 1868; NMAS 1892.

On 5 April 1859 a logboat was retrieved during the drainage of the NE part of the former Castle Loch at Closeburn in upper Nithsdale, at an altitude of about 60m OD. A bronze tripod and a paddle had previously been found in the loch and on the E shore there is a fourteenth-century tower-house. A second paddle (no. A29) was found three years later at Kirkbog in Closeburn parish.

The logboat was found in its conventional attitude in the peat at a depth of about 0.9m and was aligned E-W. Adam noted that it was of 'oak' had a groove-mounted transom. It measured about 12' (3.6m) in length and 2' (0.6m) in beam.

The logboat is housed in the reserve collection of the Royal Museum of Scotland under accession number NMS IN 2. It has twisted noticeably (presumably in drying), and the transom and most of the starboard side are missing. It measures (after shrinkage) 3.46m in length, up to 0.54m in beam, and about 0.5m in depth from what may be full height of the side. The port side measures about 40mm in thickness near the base and 20mm higher up. The floor of the boat is flat throughout its length and the sides are vertical, making the internal cross-section roughly square. The bottom measures about 100mm in thickness at the stern but is considerably thicker along the centreline forward, where the underside has a noticeable V-form.

On the basis of these measurements, the boat has a slenderness coefficient of 6.4 and a beam/draught coefficient of about 1.1. The displacement under standard conditions was about 0.56 cubic metres.

The transom-groove measures between 25mm and 30mm in breadth and between 20mm and 25mm in depth; it has probably been cut with a metal chisel. The bow is rounded both internally and externally. Around it there is evidence of charring and a rough area of heartwood, and beneath it there are broad toolmarks which have probably been made with an adze. Six probable thickness-gauge holes (four of them displaced towards the stern) pierce the floor, and in the sides near the bow there are two further holes of irregular form and undetermined nature.

The timber is noticeably smooth, fine-grained and free from splitting, but has numerous knots, the direction of which indicates that the bow is at what was formerly the lower part of the tree. The vessel has been constructed eccentrically from a complete parent log which measured at least 0.55m in diameter. About 94% of the timber has been removed to leave a useable volume of approximately 0.86 cubic metres. The McGrail morphology code is 411:111:321 and the form is a variant of the dissimilar-ended type.

This boat has been radiocarbon-dated to 1140 ? 50 ad (GrN-19279), which determination may be calibrated to about 1235 cal AD.

W Jardine 1867; Adam 1866; R Munro 1882; R J C Mowat 1996, visited May 1978; information from pers. comm. Dr JN Lanting.