Archaeology Notes

Event ID 851458

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/851458

NT37SW 173.00 c. 3045 7425

NT37SW 173.01 NT 3047 7424 Trial Excavation

OS 6" map (1854), sheet 3.

(Undated) information in NMRS.

(Location cited as NT 305 744). Portobello, Edinburgh. This harbour has disappeared and its site has been largely built over, but it is fairly fully recorded. It was situated just E of the mouth of the Figgate Burn [NT c. 3040 7432], and was built in 1787-8 at the instance of William Jameson, an Edinburgh architect and builder. The contractor was Alexander Robertson. Its original purpose was to serve the industries that were being started in Portobello, particularly a brick, tile and earthernware factory which made use of clay from the burn. It seems to have comprised a substantial stone pier 'with a rough kind of breakwater in front of it', a sub-oval basin measuring about 110ft [33.5m] by 65ft [19.8m]. This is still commemorated by the name 'Harbour Street' [name centred NT 30382 74270], at the end of Pipe Street. What was probably the site of the pier-head, as figured by Baird, is marked today by a scatter of stones and boulders below the Promenade, which includes an interrupted line of dressed facing-blocks, while Baird's 'break-water' is probably represented by a rickle of large boulders, some 70ft [21.3m] long and with its E end returned, which lies lower down the beach.

[Sources and authorities cited].

A Graham 1971.

The location assigned to this record remains unverified.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 10 July 2006.