The curragh, used in the 1963 re-enactment of Columba’s voyage from Ireland to Scotland, was designed by Richard McCullagh and is an enlarged edition of the hundreds which are in daily use in the west of Ireland.

The boat was built by Jim Boyd, who built a number of small curraghs each year on Carrickfin Island, Co.Donegal. The gunwales and transom were of deal, and the tarred skin of two thicknesses of cheap calico was stretched on a frame made from oak and larch, which Jim felled in the woods of Dunleavy.

The rig used was a small version of a traditional Shetland sixarene rig, a local variant of a dipping lug sail, of Viking origin, possibly older.

This type of sail has the potential to sail moderately well to windward, however as the skipper of the re-enactment curragh found, the lack of a keel or leeboard led to the curragh making a lot of leeway when attempting to sail upwind, making actual progress to windward under sail virtually impossible.

For much more information about the re-enactment curragh, read or listen to Wallace Clark’s appendix in the book Joyful Pilgrimage: In the wake of St Columba.

Richard McCullagh, the designer of the curragh, subsequently published The Irish Currach Folk: Life on the Western Seaboard from Galicia to Greenland (Wolfhound Press, 1992).

It’s a beautiful book. It’s expensive to buy new, but ABE Books usually has a few used copies at a reasonable price

2023 Reunion of crew members

In June 2023, four of the original crew members gathered in Bunbeg to celebrate 60 years since the momentous voyage, while also remembering the nine other crew members who had sadly passed away since the trip. Billy Paterson and curragh builder Jim Boyd met up with Alistair Jameson and John Connolly for the occasion. The Donegal News carried the full story with photos.

A member of the crew, Billy Paterson, spoke to the Donegal News

Wikipedia has an extensive entry about Columba here

Watch a 25 minute film about the 1963 re-enactment voyage, narrated by Wallace Clark, is available on YouTube, see below. Do watch it; it’s quite something.

Plus a 38′ film about curraghs by marine historian Donal Mac Polin, see below, and a third from 1963,starting at about 19′ is about the 1963 currach voyage. Here