Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 574843
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/574843
This purpose-built cable house adjoining the beach one mile north of Portpatrick, was constructed in 1852 to
house apparatus for testing the telegraph cable laid between Scotland and Ireland. Because of difficulty in
obtaining cable, a second line between Portpatrick and Donaghdee was not completed until 1853. These cables
were superseded and lifted in 1983.
The cable house is double hexagonal in plan with rendered walls, masonry quoins and a pointed tiled roof.
It is on the Dunskey Estate and now disused. The cable laying contractor was Newall & Co. of Gateshead and the cable was made by the Magneto Electric Telegraph Co. Ltd.
Paxton and Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.