It has been described as the greatest epic voyage in modern Irish history.
Tim Severin and his companions built a boat using only techniques and materials available in the sixth-century A.D, when St Brendan was supposed to have sailed to America.
The vessel comprised forty-nine ox hides stitched together in a patchwork and stretched over a wooden frame. This leather skin was only a quarter of an inch thick. Yet Severin and his crew sailed Brendan from Brandon Creek in Dingle to Newfoundland, surviving storms and a puncture from pack ice.
The Brendan Voyage is Tim Severin's dramatic account of their journey. Brilliantly written and impeccably researched, it is a classic of modern exploration and has been translated into 27 languages. It conveys unforgettably the sensation of being in a small, open boat alone in the vastness of the North Atlantic, visited by inquisitive whales, reaching mist-shrouded landfalls, and receiving a welcome from seafaring folk wherever the crew touched land.