Launch for Tudor boat exhibition

The boat is a contemporary of the Mary Rose

An Elizabethan boat has gone on display in north Wales, years after being discovered lying beneath a lake.

The 16th century craft, which is already being hailed as a national treasure, appears in the Llanberis exhibition following decades of restoration work.

The pieces stayed there for seven or eight years because we could not get people interested in her

Archaeologist Owain Roberts

Named the Llyn Peris after the lake in which it was found, the boat was unearthed in 1979 by construction workers at the Dinorwig power station.

It then lay in the back garden of a local archaeologist, before carbon dating revealed the boat was from the Tudor period, between AD1547-AD1549, which made it a contemporary of the Mary Rose.

A research project also discovered the well-preserved boat, of oak construction, was large for the lake and would probably have transported passengers and animals as well as goods.

Local archaeologist Owain Roberts, who looked after the planks of wood for years after they were dredged up, explained how he helped restore the boat.

"I tried drying out a piece out and it dried out perfectly, so I decided to dry the entire boat out in pieces in a barn," said Mr Roberts.

Owain Roberts looked after the boat after it was found

"The pieces stayed there for seven or eight years because we could not get people interested in her."

But now people are queuing up to see the ancient craft.

John Roberts, Headmaster of Park View School, brought children to the boat to bring them out of their world.

"It shows them a comparison of life somewhere else in a different time and in a different culture," he said.

In the exhibition, the Llyn Peris lies alongside a smaller but older boat, also found during the construction of the power station, which dates from AD1187-AD1205.

It is believed this second boat, named the Llyn Peris Log boat, may have played a significant role in Llywelyn the Great's power over the 12th century waterways of north-west Wales.