Boat Building
GalGael are perhaps best known for engaging the community in building and sailing traditional boats in celebration of Scotland’s heritage. Convinced well-being will only return to urban Scotland when the population is reconnected with the mountains, moors and waterways on which its ancestral heritage was built, GalGael has spent years trying to restore that link within the city by building boats modelled on a 1000-year-old Scottish prototype. GalGael’s 30ft long Orcuan was built in 2001 to just such a native blueprint. She is an interpretation of the historic galleys of the West Coast; the Birlinn, Scotland’s traditional Gaelic longboat.
These boats were effectively banned by the Statutes of Iona, 300 years ago. Once these boats would have provided the main form of transport in a mountainous region – linking the constellation of settlements on the West Coast of Scotland and beyond to the coasts of Ireland and Isle of Man. Today, GalGael use Orcuan and our other boats, to open sail training opportunities to the local community, linking urban and rural communities and enabling access to Scotland’s unique natural heritage.
Why boats? “It has to do with the ritual,” said the late Colin Macleod, “of involving the community in building something that has part of them in it. All these planks somehow go together and make a boat. And that boat somehow can hold us, take us all on a voyage. The voyage of a busted-up community to better, more hopeful future.”
On our logo you can see the image of a Birlinn, connected with the GalGael of history. The tree of life rising from the mast and spreading its branches is a potent symbol of renewal. When we started out, Colin soon realised that we could achieve much of our social, cultural and ecological objectives by actually involving communities in building boats. The rest as they say is history.
