Crail, Shoregate and Harbour. View from south east.

Description Crail, Shoregate and Harbour. View from south east.

Date c. 1885

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 739204

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of F 1986

Scope and Content Harbour, Crail, Fife Crail, a picturesque fishing port with a small tidal harbour, sits on the eastern tip of the Fife peninsula overlooking the North Sea. The Scottish photographer, Erskine Beveridge, photographed Crail c.1890, providing some of the oldest known photographic records of the town. The harbour dates from the late 15th or early 16th century when it was built as a curved rubble-built breakwater, now the east pier (right). In 1826-8 the straight west pier (left) was constructed to a design by Robert Stevenson, and in 1862 further improvements were made with the erection of a crane at the end of the east pier (centre). The east pier, described as 'new foundit' in 1610, was, by 1707, said to be 'old and ruinous, a great part of it beat down by a storm this last winter'. (Many of the harbours of Scotland were destroyed or badly damaged in the storms of the 1650s). The town eventually received a grant of £20 towards the repairs in 1728. No further development took place until the early 19th century when John Gosman built the west pier in 1826-8 for £1,095, with a grant of £500. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/739204

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap