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Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017685
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017685
The ruins of this jetty extend in a broad arm some 185m across the SW horn of Port Logan Bay, terminating at the seaward end in a more complete pier-head and small stone-bui lt lighthouse tower. Efforts on the part of the McDouall proprietors to develop Port Nessock or Port Logan into a harbour were first recorded in 1682, but the existing remains correspond with the chief proposals made by John Rennie, engineer, in a report of 1813, and carried into effect between 1818 and 1820 largely at the expense of Colonel Andrew McDouall of Logan, who hoped thereby to benefit from the Irish cattle trade.
The pier-head is protected by a pitched sea-wall rising to a parapet backed by a stepped wall-walk, and the inner quayside, which has a stair to water-level, has been faced with widely spaced wooden fenders clasped in position by socketed stones. This surviving portion is impressively constructed of coursed sandstone rubble masonry employing large stone blocks, and the slabbed and cobbled paving incorporates two granite bollards. The parapet terminates in a sturdy circular light-tower with a latrine annexe built under the adjacent forestair to the first-floor entry. The tower, which is ashlar built throughout, measures 11 ft 2 in (3.40m) in overall diameter and 32ft 2 in (9.80m) in height. The turret has a stone-slabbed conical roof of concave profile carried on four plain square monolithic pillars, rebated presumably to receive a frame for glazed panels. An iron bar is fixed to the apex of the roof for holding the lamp, but otherwise there is no surviving evidence of the actual method of lighting. The light-chamber was evidently reached by a ladder from the first floor; the ground floor contains a small fireplace and a shelved recess.
Information from ‘Monuments of Industry: An Illustrated Historical Record’, (1986).
