I give you the Cloonclose Flacket...

A flacket is a leather water vessel. The one from Cloonclose, County Leitrim, in Ireland though is the most beautifully crafted one I have ever seen.

It's dated around the 6-10th century so is believe to be Hiberno Norse, but could just as easily be native Irish craftsmanship as the county didn't see as intense norse raiding compared to neighbouring counties in the South and East.

The original flacket is huge! Is the first thing I should mention. The sort of thing that should be hung on a horse to supply the lads with ale.

I decided to make a smaller personal scaled flacket, inspired by the Cloonclose flacket. I've scaled it down to about a third in size, and simplified the carvings a little to fit them in cleanly. The stopper Is made from native hardwoods. All sealed with beeswax which I favour.


So far so good, I'm very happy with the result, and it really works! It sits snug to the body and makes carrying it more comfortable than other flasks, and fits nicely with Pictish/Gael/Hiberno kit. 


With thanks to Matt Bunker for the fantastic photographs of the artefact that is housed in the National Museum of Ireland 🙏