Montrose, Kinnaber Pumping Station

The burgh’s situation on a spit between the sea and Montrose Basin meant some trouble had to be taken to bring in fresh water. Wells and aquifers played a part but piped water arrived in 1841 with an octagonal water tower at North Esk Road. A Tudor style helped it to compliment rather than detract from an important urban skyline. The architect was William Middleton. Now it is a private house on A92.

This was supplemented at the nearest hill to the town by a square brick tower with a castellated top built in 1910 over a reservoir, close to Sunnyside Asylum (itself one of the best set of asylum buildings in Scotland, and equipped with its own water tower and workshops). Below this at NO7132 6205 is the Montrose Town Council Pumping Station and Turbine House, rebuilt in 1914, of stone and slate. It extracted water from the North Esk, filtered it and utilised the fall originally taken by Upper Kinnaber Mills to pump water to the tower on the hill by water turbine. This system is no longer in use.

M Watson, 2013