a reproduction of a 16 oar highland galley, the "aileach", was built in 1991 at moville in donegal. it was based on representations of such vessels in west highland sculpture. despite the good seagoing performance of the vessel, its design has been described as misleading because of an over-reliance in the plan on cramped sculptural images. the vessel was designed with a high, almost vertical, stern and stem. it proved difficult to fit in more than one rower per oar and the thwarts were too close together. less constricted images from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries show vessels which are longer and larger.