Archaeology Notes

Event ID 698675

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/698675

NS16SW 2 10779 63359

(NS 1078 6334) The ruins of an old salt pan are immediately at the S side of Ascog Bay. The idea was to use local coal (see NS16SW 4) for boiling sea water, but the scheme was soon abandoned because of the poor supply of coal and other difficulties.

Name Book 1863; I S Munro 1973

'At Ascog there is a strange building beside the church which was built as a Salt pan. It is an imposing building with a rounded wall to the sea looking much like a castle. The story is that the boat bringing the machinery was sunk and the place was never used.'

Information contained in a letter from D N Marshall to A L F Rivet (OS) 29 September 1963

The remains are a D-shaped structure of mortared masonry with the rounded end towards the N. The walls are 0.7m thick, the rounded end about 4.0m high and the S side about 5.0m. The E and W walls are substantially broken down. A tall chimney is incorporated in the short S gable.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 14 January 1964

18th century. A small rubble structure with a bowed end, now ruinous. There are horizontal flues in the bowed end, and a chimney at the other end. Apparently never put into production.

John Hume 1977

Two ruinous salt pan-houses are situated side-by-side immediately NE of Ascog Church (NS16SW 28), on the steep rear edge of the rocky foreshore at the S end of Ascog Bay. Each building is rectangular on plan with a rounded NW end and measures 9.4m by 6.9m over walls that average 0.6m in thickness. In both cases the NW end of the building is founded on bedrock and is set at least 1.5m below the SE end. Little detail other than its outline can be seen of the SW pan-house, the interior of which is filled with debris up to 2m in depth. The NE pan-house is much better preserved, surviving to its wall-head on the NW and with much of the chimney (including a blocked fireplace) visible in the SE gable. Three small windows in the NW end (on the SW, NW and NE respectively) are each accompanied just below floor level by a pair of small, square embrasures. Also visible at the NW end are five joist-sockets in the inner face. The entrance has probably been situated in the SE corner, but the wall here has been almost entirely removed.

Visited by RCAHMS (GFG) 2 June 2010.