3,000-year-old Bronze Age logboat saved by electric blankets

A Bronze Age boat which emerged from mudflats on the River Tay is to go on show after conservators saved it with the help of electric blankets.

The 3,000-year-old Carpow Logboat, which was carved from a single oak tree, is now due to become a star exhibit at the new Perth Museum, which is set to open next Spring.

The vessel, which is nine metres long, was found buried in the banks of the river near Perth during a spell of exceptionally low water and is thought to date to 1,000 BC.

It is returning to Perth after a year of specialist conservation work at the National Museums Collection Centre in Edinburgh to treat the boat given the wood had started to flatten and roll out.

The boat will go back on show at the new Perth Museum, which is due to open next Spring. PIC: Perth Museum.

Specialist electric blankets were used as part of the treatment to warm up the wood before gently bending the fragile structure back to its original shape.

Charles Stable, Artefact Conservator at National Museums Scotland, said: “It’s been a privilege to work on this fascinating object, not only when it was discovered, but now in

preparation for its re-display. Although it’s large and heavy, it’s also very fragile, making the conservation work rather complex. The wood naturally wants to relax and flatten out, so

The Carpow Logboat may have been used as a ferry on the River Tay - or a platform for rituals. PIC: Perth Museum.

we’ve had to gently warm it up, making it more pliable and allowing us to reshape it.

“I’ve become very familiar with the boat over years of working on it and the small details I’ve noticed are incredible; footrests for the pilot, for example, which really made me think about the people who used it. I look forward to seeing it redisplayed and recontextualised in this exciting new space.”

The vessel is a rare survival of the Bronze Age due to the peaty soil composition of the Perth and Tay Estuary area, a unique environment that preserves ancient organic material that would usually be lost to time.

Radiocarbon-dated to around 1,000 BC, the logboat is one of the oldest and best-preserved of its kind in Scotland, giving a tantalising glimpse of the thriving life around the river and the advanced technology of the time.

The boat could have been used as a cargo craft, fishing vessel or a platform from which to make offerings in the middle of the river. It may have been used as a ferry to transport up to 14 people on the water.

The Carpow stretch of the Tay had several ferry sites as recently as the 19th century, some of them operational since at least the Roman Iron Age. The boat’s find-spot was close to one of the busiest of these crossings.

Following its discovery and painstaking excavation in the summer of 2006, the waterlogged boat spent six years undergoing stabilisation of the saturated timbers and controlled drying at the National Museums Collection Centre, originally led by Senior Artefact Conservator Dr Theo Skinner and assisted by Jane Clark and Charles Stable.

The boat will be take pride of place at The Perth Museum, a purpose-built home for one of the oldest public collections in Scotland which has been created within the historic fabric of the former City Hall in the centre of Perth.