Archaeology Notes

Event ID 683342

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/683342

NO12SW 202 centred 1188 2195

Location formerly cited as NO 11 21 to NO 12 22.

For discovery of harbour works during excavations at Tay Street, Baptist Church site (NO 1204 2333), see NO 12SW 145.

For original harbour at Perth, see NO12SW 1142.

Perth Harbour [NAT] (at NO 1188 2195)

OS 1:10,000 map, 1994.

(Location cited as NO 118 219). Perth Harbour. Rebuilt from 1830. A small, roughly rectangular tidal basin off the River Tay, now concrete-faced, and a quayed stretch of the river bank.

J R Hume 1977.

There is documentary evidence for three harbours at Perth. The earliest (NO12SW 1142) is indicated on the earliest (1715) map of Perth and was probably the original harbour founded by David I, just before 1127. Situated adjacent to the former bridge NO12SW 77 and at the eastern end of the High Street, [at NO c. 1207 2366], it has not been the subject of controlled excavation, but underpinning work beneath the council chambers (NO12SW 125) has revealed timber structures nearly 5m below street level.

The second harbour (NO12SW 145) or New Haven is dated to 1539, when the Perth Guildry Book records that John Moncur of Balluny paid for the carriage of 200 ashlar stones for its construction. This harbour also appears on Louis Pettit's map of 1715 up against the Greyfriars' burial ground (NO12SW 204) at the SE corner of the town and at the outflow of the southern branch of the town lade (NO12SW 50), which now runs beneath Canal Street. This harbour was formed by opening up the mouth of the southern lade into a large basin and building stone quay (the 'Coal Shore') on the S side of the basin, under the walls of Greyfriars. The canal was covered-over by about 1806 and the basin subsequently infilled, as is indicated by the 1st edition of the OS Map (1862/3). Ships could still be berthed along the waterfront until the 1870's, when the foreshore was embanked to form Tay Street.

The third harbour (NO12SW 202) at Friarton (about a mile down river) superseded the other two in the 19th century.

D P Bowler 1991.

This small open harbour is situated on the W side of the W channel of the River Tay, opposite the S end of Friarton or Moncreffe Island and to the SE of the town of Perth (NO12SW 100). It is formed of two open quays, and has no enclosing works.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 31 May 2006.