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The birlinn (spelt ''bìrlinn'' in Scottish Gaelic) was a wooden vessel propelled by sail and oar, used extensively in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland from the Middle Ages on. Variants of the name in English and Lowland Scots include "berlin" and "birling". The Gallo-Norse term may derive from the Norse ''byrðingr'' (ship of burden). It has been suggested that a local design lineage might also be traceable to vessels similar to the Broighter-type boat (first century BC), equipped with oars and a square sail, without the need to assume a specific Viking design influence.〔Leslie Alcock, ''Kings and Warriors, Craftsmen and Priests in Northern Britain AD 550–850'' (Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph Series, 2003), p. 130,〕 It is uncertain, however, whether the Broighter model represents a wooden vessel or a skin-covered boat of the currach type.〔'Broighter boat, circa 100 BC,' 5 May 2011, ''Irish Times'': http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0528/1224297912869.html〕 The majority of scholars emphasise the Viking influence on the birlinn.〔See, for example, Caldwell, p. 145〕 The birlinn was clinker-built and could be sailed or rowed. It had a single mast with a square sail. Smaller vessels of this type might have had as few as twelve oars, with the larger West Highland galley having as many as forty. For over four hundred years, down to the seventeenth century, the birlinn was the dominant vessel in the Hebrides. A 1615 report to the Scottish Privy Council made a distinction between galleys, having between 18 and 20 oars, and birlinns, with between 12 and 18 oars. There was no suggestion of structural differences. The report stated that there were three men per oar.〔Caldwell, p. 148〕 The birlinn appears in Scottish heraldry as the "lymphad" (a corruption of ''long fhada'' (longship). == Use == In terms of design and function, there was considerable similarity between the local birlinn and the ships used by Norse incomers to the Isles. In an island environment ships were essential for the warfare which was endemic in the area, and local lords used the birlinn extensively from at least the thirteenth century.〔Rixson, p. 16〕 The strongest of the regional naval powers were the Macdonalds of Islay.〔Rixson, p. 20〕 The Lords of the Isles of the Late Middle Ages maintained the largest fleet in the Hebrides. It is possible that vessels of the birlinn type were used in the 1156 sea battle in which Somerled, Lord of Argyll, the ancestor of the lords, firmly established himself in the Hebrides by confronting his brother-in-law, Godred Olafsson, King of the Isles. Though the surviving evidence has mostly to do with the birlinn in a naval context, there is independent evidence of mercantile activity for which such shipping would have been essential. There is some evidence for mercantile centres in Islay, Gigha, Kintyre and Knapdale, and in the fourteenth century there was constant trade between the Isles, Ireland and England under the patronage of local lords.〔Rixson, p. 32〕 Otherwise the chief uses of the birlinn would have been troop-carrying, fishing and cattle transport.〔Rixson, p. 35〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「birlinn」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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