40-Year Anniversary of “Brendan Voyage” Marked in Clare

By Adam Farley, Deputy Editor
August / September 2016

Explorer and historian Tim Severin celebrated 40 years since he embarked on an epic 4,500 mile voyage across the Atlantic on a leather boat with Shannon Heritage in June at the permanent home of Severin’s original “Brendan Boat” in Craggaunowen, Co. Clare. Severin, right, undertook the voyage to prove the feasibility of the alleged journey of St. Brendan to the Americas more than 500 years before Columbus. The boat, built exclusively of materials that would have been found and readily available in sixth-century Ireland, and Severin and his crew landed safely at Peckford Island, Newfoundland on June 26th, 1977, having left from Brandon, Co. Kerry over a year earlier in May, 1976. The journey was later recounted in Severin’s memoir The Brendan Voyage.

Note: Tim Severin passed away on 18 December 2020 (aged 80) in Timoleague, West Cork. ♦

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