Our Story

​The Scottish Coastal Rowing Association was formed on May 29, 2010, to encourage boat building, rowing and racing coastal rowing boats around the Scottish coastline. ​They soon began encouraging coastal communities to build their own boats, principally St Ayles skiffs.

Following this, a group of men in Musselburgh decided to build their own skiff, which was launched on August 18, 2013. While the boat was being built, the boat makers established a club, which they called Eskmuthe to make sure they didn’t upset any ancient rivalry between the two towns of Musselburgh and Fisherrow. The club was constituted on October 24, 2012. The boat was called Honesty, after the Honest Toun of Musselburgh, and has ‘Fisherrow’ painted on its side to show respect to both towns.

The club continued to grow and in 2014 was rowing regularly, taking part in local regattas and applying for an 'Awards For All' lottery grant to provide funding to build a second skiff. This was successful and Steedie Falconer was launched on May 3, 2015. Steedie was named after a local fishwife who died during the time the skiff was being built. The boat was registered as SCRA No 95, the same age as Steedie when she passed away. 
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Following the launch, the club became a Scottish Incorporated Charitable Organisation (SCIO) on April 22, 2016. Members began doing training in First Aid and Seamanship and continued to learn about rowing and the sea. Other members are now trained as SCRA Umpires, and are licensed to use VHF radios.

The club has always had a strong community spirit and has taken part in the town’s annual festival and communities days. We held the first-ever Rowing of the Marches event in 2016 for the town’s Riding of the Marches, an ancient festival held every 21 years to mark the town’s boundaries. Our event marked the sea boundary of Musselburgh. We have also taken out many young people’s groups including Scouts, Duke of Edinburgh and Barnados. We also do several taster sessions every year for anyone who would like to try rowing.

​We have regular fundraising events open to non-members and are hoping to build our own boatshed in the future. We continue to take part in regattas throughout Scotland and the north of England and have begun having longer rows, including one from Fisherrow to North Berwick in 2017, and one from Kinghorn to Inchcolm Island and back in 2018.

We have also hugely appreciated and enjoyed having the chance to take part in national events including a flotilla celebrating the opening of the Queensferry Crossing bridge in 2017, and the opening of the V&A museum in Dundee in 2018.

10 years of coastal rowing 

Eskmuthe’s club chair Gaynor Allen directed this amazing video, which tells the history of the first decade of coastal rowing.

It was first shown at Skiffieworlds in The Netherlands, to a rapturous reception from rowers from across the world.