Another important attraction at Craggaunowen is the 'Brendan Boat', the hide boat in which Tim Severin sailed from Ireland to the United States, re-enacting the Voyage of St. Brendan the Navigator, reputed to have discovered America centuries before Columbus.
St. Brendan the Navigator (who died c. 583 AD.) was, according to a 9th century manuscript, The Navigacio, the first man to discover the 'Promised Land' across the Atlantic. This place he called High Basil and first came to him a dream.
In 1976 Tim Severin, a modern day explorer, built a leather-hulled boat based on the vessel described in the manuscript, and on the Currach still used on Ireland's West Coast. He and his crew then made the voyage with stops on the Aran Islands, in Donegal, the Hebrides and in the Faroes, over-wintering in Iceland, and proved it was possible for St. Brendan to have made the voyage to America in such a craft.
The actual boat used in this endeavour is on display in a specially constructed glass boathouse, reminiscent of a glacier – freezing the boat in timeless perpetuity.
