The earliest log boats can be dated to the Stone Age period when
people lived by hunting and gathering. The boats were used for
wildfowling and fishing along river banks and may have been steered
and propelled by poles. Most boats were made of oak which splits
along its grain easily, the remaining shaping being carried out
with polished stone axes and flints. The log boat from
Catherinefield is the earliest securely dated log boat in Scotland,
it has survived from the early Bronze Age, over 4,000 years ago.
The others were probably made over 2,000 years ago when many local
people lived in crannogs or lake dwellings.
Mowat, R J C (1996) The logboats of Scotland, with notes on related artefact types, Oxbow Monograph series, no. 68 Oxford Page(s): viii, 70-2, 111, 119, nos. 132-3 figs. 27-8, tab. 1 Held at RCAHMS E.5.14.MOW
RCAHMS (1997a) Eastern Dumfriesshire: an archaeological landscape, Edinburgh
Page(s): 307, no. 1087 Held at RCAHMS A.1.7.DUM
TDGNHAS (1911b) 'Presentations and exhibits', Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc, 2nd, vol.23
Page(s): 321-2
