The forgotten Irish longbow
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- Опубликовано: 28 ноя 2024
- An important video about the Irish longbow a style of bow that seems unique to the Island of Ireland. I aim to have this as an ongoing series examining and making these amazing bows.
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Thanks for your video. I made a yew bow from our Irish yew almost fifty years ago, happy days.
Fascinating
Excellent 👌🏼
Fascinating subject, I look forward to seeing more on this.
@@WarriorAttributes thanks mate
Ok, I'm hooked now and have to know more about all of this! Really fascinating and something that I was not aware of at all. I look forward to learning more.
Subscribe and i will make sure to keep you posted.
Pretty interesting. I can't wait to learn more.
@@gozer87 thank you should be some interesting stuff ahead.
Very interesting. Keep up the good work.
@@billybones9117 appreciate it mate
So excited for this!
@@forest-9243 me too haha
😱 looking forward to where this goes. Hopefully will see Colin do a reply video to this one.
That would be terrific to see happen. I have some folks in the pacific northwest who might help me out for wood at least.
The rebate or furrow in the back of the limbs is clearly for sinew backing
@@ivanhunter3907 being in a bog sinew would have survived there was a leather pouch of some kind attached to one of the eyelets that survived for example. I will do a full deep dive on the bows soon
@ on another note. I-beams are stronger than a similarly weighted bar of the same steel as the more material with is further from the centre of the bending axis then the stronger the beam. So these groves might be related to this.. anyway best of luck with it
@ivanhunter3907 there is a strange relationship between thickness and power in a bow so it's a strange choice
Would love to see an update on ur giant targe
Fascinating information. I was looking for a while for information on highland bows in Scotland but didn't find very much, but since the west coast has so many cultures similarities with Ireland it wouldn't surprise me if this was used over here too.
@@WooliamWallace there is a lot of crossover and some unique Scottish bows I will definitely look at soon
if these are yew bows perhaps they were made from less than perfect branches and had the heartwood reduced to match a very thin sapwood to prevent compression damage ? the holes could be for cable backing similar to phenobscott ? if the sapwood is removed then backing with sinew or a cable/string could help keep it together .. so many possibles . never knew these were so unique
@@captainflint89 all possible but there doesn't seem to be any signs of backing and those would normally preserve in a bog. The only thing I can think of is something to do with the sapwood to hardwood ratio but I still can't figure out why. The eyelets definitely seems to be for the string as there is no other nocking points or reinforcements there.
"Having eyelets and using yew seems to be a very specific Irish tradition" the eyelets are certainly something new, but English longbows were famously made of yew.
Yew was imported in large quantities from Spain and Italy to supplement English supplies, which were considered inferior, and there was even a tax on imported wine to be paid in yew staves.
@@andyleighton6969 I am very familiar with the English longbow tradition. It's more so that all of these bows are yew. The eyelets and carved grooves appear to be uniquely Irish however.
@@ramblingkern I have to say that I had not come across the eyelet before so that seems to be uniquely Irish.
@bigblue6917 it does appear in a handful of other places. I will show them in a follow up video on how I'm going to try and approach making these.
Very interesting stuff man! Ud be forgiven for thinking the Irish only used slings and those Kern dart javelins from how little it's mentioned. Wasn't expecting the yew either. I read about the earliest Norman incursions into Wales where the locals shot extremely powerful short elm bows. I would have expected something similar here since our yew was considered inferior to the continent and as really long bow would be a hinderance considering how dense our woodland was back then. But yea the function of the furrows and the eyelets would be interesting to know about. I know people keep mentioning it but I bet Todd of toddstuff might have some ideas on the purpose of these designs. They've figured the reasons for a few design choices on weapons and armour that were previously misunderstood through testing.
@@joereynolds475 as odd as it sounds England was importing yew from cork during the medieval period we must have had some decent yew here at some point. Its a video I need to do at some point. As for the furrows that's the biggest thing that confuses me it goes against all bow building convention.
@@ramblingkern no kidding? I know they pillaged the area for the oak battleships, but never knew about bowstaves. I live in west cork so I'll have to have a look around for some.
@@joereynolds475 yeah our lack of forest now makes it very hard to come across sadly.
Historical bows are in 3 categories in my mind.
Long bow. UK
Composite bow. Europe Asia America
Bamboo bow: Japan
@@fasted8468 I tend to have two self bow and composite. Those two however span thousands of years and countless variations.
The use of eyelets on bows is still used for Indigenous Taiwanese bows
@@alexcheng1560 amazing I have seen references to some native American ones but I will have to check out the Taiwanese ones to figure out to string them.
Salish bows made for fishing salmon sometimes have eyelets. I think they are mostly cedar, but I'm not sure.
@420JackG where abouts are they from?
@@ramblingkern the Pacific Northwest of North America.
@@420JackG very very interesting.
What are the grooves for on The Ballymackeehola Bow ? What are the eyelets for ?
The bow in the picture at 2:44 looks very much like a sinew backed bow,..without the sinew obviously.
@@incognitusmaximus2118 I don't know there are grooves carved in 4 of the 6 bows I can't think of anything other than aesthetics. Unless it's something to do with the ratio of hardwood to sapwood but as they were stained from the bogs it's impossible to know if that's why.
@@ramblingkern They may have used bowstrings, as the backing. Those ancient Irish cooks were quite clever it seems :)
@@ramblingkernIts a lot of trouble to go to just for aesthetics and doing this idly to the back would compromise the strength of the grain unless it is done as part of a process of reinforcing or strenthening it.
As u mentioned making bows,any suggestions of woods other than yew in Ireland? The only thing I ever had success with was Holly but it shot slow even with heavy draw weight and followed the string very quickly.
@@joereynolds475 in Andrew halpins work I think 3 woods were reported yew, elm and i forget the third. If you want to make your own we can get ash here pretty well but laminates are definitely a simple solution.
@@ramblingkern ah yea I've heard ash can be good but would defo need to be combined with something abit springier. I once make a whitethorn bow that shot lightning fast but I got sloppy tillering it and broke it. Never found a good straight enough piece to try again..... Reckon I'll give the elm a go ..
@@joereynolds475 ash on its own will give a good and solid bow. If you want to add some power a hickory or bamboo back can do that.
@@ramblingkern alrite sound man, I might give it a go before all the dieback kills it all.
Elm was very common in Ireland and used a lot in the Medieval period in Wales as a good Yew substitute. Mountain Ash also makes a strong bow and grows prolifically in marginal areas where Ash, Elm and Yew are scarce and non existant.
Great video Nathan, do you have a specific date for any of these bows other than bronze age? I agree there had to be an archery culture of some description in Ireland in acient times, but I am surprised that its long bows. I would have assumed since Ireland was forrested that the bows would have been smaller for hunting, not long bows which I thing suggests a martial use rather than a hunting use in Ireland.
I see a lot of parrallels in Ireland and North America and a lot of the eastern woodland tribes tended for longbows so I think there is some reasoning to it but I will do a full breakdown on the bows with dates and all that very soon.
In many of the medieval Irish tales there is a certain condescending attitude towards bows and more heroism associated with a warrior armed with spears. Spears and swords would have been the weapons of choice for cattle herders/ warriors as is also the case among African Cattle cultures. In the Irish tales bows and arrows are most often associated with bands of witches and have sinister conotations often being tipped with poison.
6 feet? I remember reading stuff that they were closer to half that. I've also seen depictions that they may have been recurved (possibly by heat?).
@@CDKohmy yeah most of the finds in Ireland which are limited mind you are all very long. There is art work showing shorter recurved bows something I would love to try but making these from a single piece of wood will be a tough endeavour.
What was the advantage to that hole when nearly everywhere else made nocks for the string
@@vallgron I genuinely have no idea the only reason I could think of is to keep the string attached to the bow for quick stringing. But in such a wet climate you would want to preserve most natural strings from moisture.
Diddnt the Picts also have an indigenous crossbow before the English? Very strange how these things come about
@@joereynolds475 very possible Paul MacDonald would be the man for that.
Nice. I would of hated to live back then mate
you hate this era as well haha where's your time machine back to the 70s/80s. haha
@@IrishMedievalHistory I don`t mind now at 62 but the 70`s and 80`s were great mate
@@waynemcauliffe-fv5yf haha I will wouldn't fancy it myself either to be honest haha.
@@ramblingkern 😁
No they got an English one and painted it Green
Kern; here in America in the northwestern part ( Oregon and Washington) we have a large amount Yew wood trees. My questiion is, would you some blanks of yew some of these trees have base of up too 3/4 of a meter. I'm planning on going up to northwestern washiongton state in the early summer of 2025 to get some of the wood for a friend of mine here in northeastern Nevada as he and she are both bowyers as a hobby . contact me if you are interested .
I most certainly would be thanks mate.
can you drop me an email its ramblingkern @ gmail