The Viking-style boat reviving traditional skills
A 120-year-old sailing boat of a design dating back to the Vikings is helping to preserve the future of traditional boatbuilding in Scotland.
"Bee" is one of the very few remaining Stroma yoles – a small open-decked boat with a planked hull - that once served the now abandoned island off the northern mainland.
Originally used to transport livestock, at one point in its eventful history it was left on a beach for nearly 30 years after a bull put its hoof through its hull.
The traditional vessel now has a new lease of life, spearheading a heritage restoration project for school-leavers in Eyemouth, in the Scottish Borders.
Project manager Kevin McClure said: "For everyone who has been involved so far, this has been an extremely rewarding project."
Built in 1904, Bee spent its first three decades transporting sheep, cattle and horses from Stroma over the treacherous two miles of the Pentland Firth.
Although chewing tobacco was used in an attempt to sedate the animals - by rubbing it into their gums - in 1941 a bull being ferried for the Department of Agriculture became agitated and put its hoof through the hull.
For years it was left to decay on a beach, while Stroma's population also declined. The island once had its own church, post office, school and shop to support a over 300 residents.
But numbers had dropped to only a dozen by the early 1960s, and when the lighthouse keepers departed for the last time in 1997, Stroma became home only to grazing livestock and seabirds.
The design of the double-ended yole has origins going back to the Norse Viking raiding boats that arrived on Scotland's shores a millennia ago.
Bee was built using age-old clinker planking techniques for a co-operative of crofters from Stroma which sits between Orkney and the mainland.
But her voyage to modern times has been far from plain sailing, after twice being abandoned to the elements.
About a dozen current and former pupils from Eyemouth High School are now taking part in weekly workshops to bring Bee back to life.
As well as practical boat restoration, they learn about wider sustainable technologies, business planning and financial management.
Mr McClure, who is heading up the Viking Project, said: "Using an historic boat as a vehicle for skills learning isn't unique but it is a fantastic model for engagement.
"We are bringing the Stroma Bee back to life and it is giving us the potential to design a pre-apprenticeship course where the young people can work towards a Level 5 SQA.
"The Viking Project is addressing traditional skills shortages as well as the rural isolation young people face in places like Eyemouth."
Eyemouth High pupil Caleb said: "We have been learning about Bee's history as well as working out how she was built.
"I have enjoyed learning how to carry out the repairs and doing it the same way the boatbuilders did."
Although Bee was rescued from Stroma in 1968 and towed to the mainland for initial restoration, its story didn't end on the north coast.
Bee was used for several decades as a private pleasure boat before being acquired by the Berwickshire Marine Trust to teach traditional sailing skills.
The yole was sold by the charity in 2019 but following her new owner's death, it was again abandoned – this time under tarpaulin at an Eyemouth boatyard.
With Eyemouth Marine Ltd completing a new training centre last year, Bee was given yet another lease of life as part of the Viking Project.
Seb has been attending the project since it began in October.
He said: "We have learned all about where the boat came from and what it was used for.
"We hope that by restoring Bee she will get back out on the sea.
"Part of the course is working out what should happen to her after we have finished the restoration."
Wider projects involving stonemasonry and plastering on historical buildings in and around Eyemouth are planned on the back of the success of restoring Bee.
