We Made It: Coracle Maker Malcolm Rees

We Made It: Coracle Maker Malcolm Rees | reviews, news & interviews

We Made It: Coracle Maker Malcolm Rees

We Made It heads to South Wales to discover a living craft tradition

by Heather NeillSaturday, 25 July 2015

Malcolm Rees (right) with his fishing partner David Siggery (2012)

Over the past few months of We Made It, we've explored some very traditional crafts, but few that have such a direct link to the distant past as this. Malcolm Rees is one of a handful of people in South Wales keeping the culture of coracle building and fishing alive, having grown up around generations who built and used the unique boats, which were once admired by Julius Caesar.

Read his story and that of his fellow coraclers over on the Bruichladdich site.

Read other articles in We Made It, our series on craft in partnership with Bruichladdich

Explore topics

Share this article

more We made it

We Made It: Guitar Maker Brian Cohen The incredible one-man string band

We Made It: Basket-maker Lois Walpole Weaving works of art from 'ghost gear' and the detritus of consumerism

We Made It: Horn Maker Tom Fisher Bespoke horns, handcrafted in a Derbyshire cellar

We Made It: Stufish Entertainment Architects From U2 and Madonna to Chinese theatre and the Martian Fighting Machine

We Made It: 'Carol' Costume Designer Sandy Powell How she brought a melange of styles to Todd Haynes's sublime period romance

We Made It: Stuntwoman Tracy Caudle Forget Evel Knievel: a well-crafted stunt is more about precision than daring

We Made It: 'The Revenant' Production Designer Jack Fisk How he stunningly recreated the authentic American frontier of 1823

We Made It: Double Bass Maker Laurence Dixon Love at first sight, a six-day week and the satisfaction of a job well done

We Made It: The Electric Recording Company Pete Hutchison's quest for musical perfection on vinyl

We Made It: Watchmaker Roger W Smith The world-leading horologist keeping British watchmaking alive, crafting exquisite timepieces by hand

We Made It: Concert hall acoustics The RSNO have a new concert hall. The lead acoustician explains why it sounds so good

We Made It: The Headcaster App Chris Chapman explains the genesis of his animated character app

Follow @theartsdesk