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Publication Account
Date 1987
Event ID 1016838
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016838
Crail was created a Royal Burgh in 1310 and is likely to have had some form of protecting bulwark from an early period. The date of the construction of the south quay of the existing harbour is uncertain but the vertically-jointed masonry suggests a late 15th or early 16th century structure. By 1593 the harbour was considered to be too small and a supplication was made to the Convention of Royal Burghs asking that an area of ground called 'Pinkertoun' be purchased for the founding and erecting of a harbour to the town. The position of this harbour to the east of the burgh would appear to be a large natural haven later referred to as Roome Harbour (NO 619078).
The petition was continued for many years but without success, the last attempt being in 1610 when the old harbour was in need of repair. Many of the harbours of Scotland were destroyed or badly damaged in the storms of the 1650s and, with trade and commerce at a low ebb, any development was unlikely. At the beginning of the 18th century Crail granted the sum of £20 sterling to repair the ruinous harbour. No further development took place until the early years of the 19th century. Ainslie's map for 1775 shows Crail harbour as comprising a single dog-leg quay. In 1821, Robert Stevenson produced a plan for the improvement of the old harbour. This work appears to have been carried out as Dower's map of 1828 suggests the building of the west quay which still survives.
With the return of herring to the Firth of Forth in the 1830s and 1840s, Crail again attempted to have a harbour built at Roome. James Leslie, the Dundee Harbour Board engineer, prepared a plan in 1846. This consisted of two proposals for an 'Asylum Harbour' in Roome Bay. The first plan enclosed an area of 6.48 hectares of water at low tide and 9.3 hectares between the low and high watermark. He also suggested a wet dock and repairing dock or slip between high and low water. The smaller plan was similar but with a reduced area of deep water. This proposal was prepared in the light of a Government plan to create a 'Harbour of Refuge' on the east coast of Scotland. Crail's claim for this harbour included lists of recent wrecks on the Carr Rocks. They also proposed that the Cellardyke fishermen could 'emigrate' to Crail. Wick in Caithness was, however, selected as the site for this harbour in 1858.
Crail abandoned the 'Roome' project and effected improvements to the old harbour. These were completed in January 1862 with the erection of a crane to place booms at the entrance. The 19th century work at the entrance to the harbour is very obvious as it is built with horizontal masonry and mortar joints. The boom was intended to protect boats in the harbour in stormy weather, but fishermen complained that it obstructed free access and egress for their boats.
There has been no further development since that period other than general repairs and the harbour is now used by only a few very small boats working lobster pots. It is an attractive place and does much to put the scale of medieval trading vessels in perspective.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Fife and Tayside’, (1987).
