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Archaeology Notes
Event ID 851732
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/851732
NT48SE 173 c. 460 801
See also NT48SE 116.
(Location cited as NT c. 460 801). Aberlady Bay, East Lothian. Aberlady Bay, where the lowermost reach of the Peffer Burn forms a navigable channel through the tidal sands and mud, is mentioned as early as 1336, when boats were requisitioned there by the Governor of Edinburgh Castle. It belonged to the Royal Burgh of Haddington, the confirmation of whose charter (1633) mentions 'the port of Aberladie lyand in the bossome of pepher water and common gait leading to the said port'. The burgh had been in treaty, between 1614 and 1630, with the Convention of Royal Burghs for 'support of their harberie' of Aberlady, but no existence exists for actual harbour-works, and Adair (1703) clearly implies that vessels simply lay in the estuary. Blaeu's map, presumably reflecting the conditions of the early 17th century, marks a long row of houses at the water's edge, closely set and with their gable-ends turned landwards. On the other hand, a report of 1694 states that the place 'cannot be made navigable, or a safe harbour, without ane extraordinary expences'.
Traces of a wide piend piercing the rebuilt house of Kilspindie (NT 456 803: NT48SE 116) which was a ruin in 1807, might suggest that it was originally a commercial building of some sort, but there is no evidence to connect it with the harbour. Some surviving wide chamfers probably indicate a 17th-century date.
[Sources and authorities cited].
A Graham 1971.
