Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 610049
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/610049
From 1757 to 1761, as the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions gathered momentum, the 5th Earl of Elgin developed lime production on his Broomhall Estate by quarrying limestone and building kilns, the village of Charlestown, and its harbour. Prior to this, limestone deposits had been exploited at nearby Limekilns but in a small way. The present pier there seems to be of third quarter18th century construction with roughly squared dry (unmortared) sandstone block facings quarried nearby.
From 1774, with the opening of the original Elgin Wagonway, Charlestown was supplied with coal for lime making via Limekilns, the exporting port for coal from pits west of Dunfermline. In 1799 this wagonway was extended along the shore to Charlestown Harbour, being replaced by 1820 with a more direct line to the west with an inclined plane down to the harbour, including a substantial three-span arch bridge. The rails, at first of wood, were replaced by cast-iron in ca.1804 and malleable iron from ca.1820.
The imposing bank of draw kilns fronting the inner basin of the harbour were more or less continuously developed from 1759–90. The sickle-shaped in plan pier enclosing this basin is of similar construction to Limekilns Pier butwith some large blocks at the west end. Its top contains numerous mooring rings and is partly surfaced with old railway chair blocks. The inner basin entrance is 120 ft wide with an enclosed area 635 ft long by 100 ft to 180 ft wide, with a depth at Spring tides of 1612 ft in 1844.
From ca.1813–34, as the Estate was becoming one of the largest industrial operations of its kind in Scotland, the 7th Earl engaged Charles Landale, civil engineer, to superintend work. In addition to maintaining the harbours, Landale introduced numerous improvements for transporting materials in, or to and from, the quarries and mines, including the inclined plane to the harbour and the ingenious inclined planes at Pittencrieff and Colton near Dunfermline. His salary was £250 per annum, plus expenses and the use of a horse! The outer basin was added later, the north-west pier dating from ca.1840 and the south-east pier after 1853. In 1859 the harbour became the property of the North British Railway Company, who provided a passenger service to Charlestown in 1894. The harbour now contains about 10 ft of mud and is unused apart from small sailing boats.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
