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Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands
Date 2007
Event ID 929678
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/929678
Fraserburgh Harbour
This complex multi-basin harbour is formed from eight piers, two breakwaters and quay walls. The development of the present harbour into one of Scotland’s main herring fishing ports commenced in the early years of the 19th century when the North Pier (1807–11) and the South Pier
(1818–21) were constructed to the designs of Rennie and Stevenson, respectively. The broad Middle Pier, completed 1830, divided the enclosed space of about 8 acres into theNorth and South Harbours, arguably then the best such tidal facility in Eastern Scotland with a water depth,
depending on the state of the tide, of 11–16 ft inside and along the quays and up to 20 ft at the entrance.
The construction of the Balaclava Pier (1850–57) to the north and west to a design by John Gibb enclosed an area which, with the construction of later piers and quays, became Balaclava Harbour. The Balaclava breakwater, an
extension to the pier built from 1875–82, was designed by James Abernethy, who remained consulting engineer to the Harbour Commissioners until his death in 1896.
The Balaclava breakwater works, which cost about £60 000, were carried out by J. H. Bostock, resident engineer, by direct labour. The pier is 860 ft long and has a 72 ft high lighthouse at its end and was of state-of-theart
construction in being founded to low-water level on large bags of concrete filled from a hopper barge after themethod invented by Cay at Aberdeen, above which is a solid mass of concrete 30 ft wide. Even this massive construction was damaged by northeast gales in 1883, although not fundamentally, being restored at 1 3/4 % of the total cost outlay. A spur to the breakwater, built from 1906–08, provided further shelter to vessels using the harbour. Both the breakwater and spur were constructed of mass concrete, the strongest mix being one part of cement to 4 1/2 parts of sand and stone.
The Station Harbour, to the south and east of the South Pier, was the last section to be built. The South breakwater, constructed to provide more sheltered access for vessels entering the older harbours, was completed in 1898. The West and Burnett Piers and the Station Jetty were then
built (1908–13) to form the Station Harbour which was deepened to give a depth of 11 ft at low water.
R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Highlands and Islands' with kind permission from Thomas Telford Publishers.
