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Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands
Date 2007
Event ID 929287
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/929287
Although a harbour existed at Stonehaven from at least the 17th century, it was reportedly in a poor state until improvements, including construction of the seawall and breasting of the new harbour to the south and other
work, designed by Robert Stevenson, were carried out in 1825–26. Before this there was a single pier to which an enclosing pier (1825–26) and an internal jetty (1837) were added to form a double basin. The trade at the harbour increased and by 1895 more than 100 herring boats were
fishing from the port each season.
Stevenson’s son Thomas, in his text book on the design and construction of harbours in 1864, provides an illustrated section of, presumably, the 1825–26 pier noting that the string or bottle course at roadway level facing thesea had to be hewn off to inhibit shaking of the masonry during storms.
The mass concrete breakwater protecting the harbour entrance was built to a design by J. Barron in ca.1901.
The harbour is now the largest recreational facility of its kind in Aberdeenshire, with three basins extending to 412 acres in area.
R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
