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Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017619
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017619
Keiss is one of the more picturesque and better-preserved of the small 19th-century herring-and salmon-fishing stations on the eastern coast of Caithness. Keiss Bay was inspected and given qualified approval as a haven by Thomas Telford in 1790, but the small harbour with pier, slipway and stilling-basin was not built until 1820.
The harbour walls and parapets are constructed of coursed rubble masonry, usually comprising large slabs of local flagstone; the walls have battered sides and incorporate recessed stairways. The breakwater at the end of the stilling-basin is built of vertically set masonry. Behind the breakwater there is a three-storeyed six-bay warehouse which measures 80ft 6in (24.54m) by 22ft 9in (6.93m) overall; it occupies a bank side position with the ground-floor and first-floor loading-doors fronting the Quayside. The ground floor consists entirely of vaulted cellarage, comprising six transverse barrel-vaulted chambers with independent access designed to serve as salt stores in the herring-curing process. The first floor is flagged and the second floor joisted; the plans at each level are roughly mirrored on either side of a central stone partition, each three-bay unit having a fireplace at opposing ends.
A short distance to the NE of the warehouse and harbour there is an ice-house built into the headland. Behind its gabled outer chamber there is a main vaulted chamber measuring 19 ft (5.79m) by 14 ft (4.27m) laterally and served by a high-level hatch beneath the crown of the vault in the landward gable.
Above the harbour, a range of dwellings along the cliff-top terminates at the S end with a yard and an adjoining store and salmon-bothy. The latter is equipped with two pairs of bunk-beds and continued in use until 1940.
Information from ‘Monuments of Industry: An Illustrated Historical Record’, (1986).
