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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 781990
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/781990
NT96NW 54.00 centred 92042 67325
NT96NW 54.01 NT 92053 67317 Lifeboat Station
NT96NW 54.02 NT 91961 67292 Gear Stores
Not to be confused with Pettico Wick Harbour ('St Abbs Fishery') at NT 9080 6907, for which see NT96NW 47.
For Fish House at NT 92021 67266, see NT96NW 195.
(Location cited as NT 920 673). St Abbs, Berwickshire. No harbour existed in Coldingham parish in 1794 (Stat. Acct), but work was put in hand in 1831 to provide a refuge for fishing-boats, and a developed version of this still stands inside the much larger later works. As now improved and expanded, this original harbour comprises a squarish box, extending only to about a quarter of an acre [0.101ha], inserted in an natural pocket among the littoral rocks, which have been quarried away as necessary or made to serve as foundations. The SW side is formed of a shore-based wharf, partly built and partly rock-cut, the NW side by a pier, originally a breakwater only, and the SE and NE sides by another, which returns at right angles at the E corner. The entrance, 20ft [6.1m] wide, which has chases for booms and is partly rock-cut, is at the N corner, and beyond this a narrow extension of the NE pier runs on for a further 75ft [22.9m]. This is an addition to the work of 1831. The face of the wharf on the SW may be later than the rest as it is of different build.
The main interest of the place lies in the date that it provides for the character of masonry employed. The piers are of large, well-dressed, scabbled blocks, set dry and accurately coursed. These vary somewhat in thickness from place to place, and on the seaward faces are in general deeply rusticated. These faces show considerable batter.
A Graham 1971.
(Location cited as NT 920 673). St Abbs harbour, built 1833 and subsequently enlarged. A harbour of enclosure with an L-plan pier and a straight pier enclosing a roughly rectangular basin. An inner basin is formed by two straight piers. Ancillary features include two net-boiling tubs.
J R Hume 1976.
