Skateraw Harbour

NT77NW 69 centred 7386 7547

Skateraw Harbour [NAT]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1983.

Location formerly entered as NT 748 754.

For boathouse and slipway at NT 7370 7558, see NT77NW 67.

For adjacent and associated limekiln, see also NT77NW 68.

For war memorial at NT 7389 7535, see NT77NW 95.

(Location cited as NT 738 754). Skateraw, East Lothian. The littoral rocks S of Chapel Point [name: 739 758] are broken by an inlet with a sandy beach at its head. This was no doubt the landing-place that had to be watched in 1565, and it corresponds with the indentation shown on Adair's map of 1682, outside which is marked an anchorage with a depth of three fathoms. About the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, the place was listed among 'creeks' for barks in summer time.' A plan prepared by W Monson in 1771, evidently for use in the exploitation of the local limestone, marks 'Skate Row Harbour' as a squarish pocket in the shore, but without any quays or breakwater. The construction of harbour-works had evidently been thought of by 1791, and in fact Adair had himself noted that the site was suitable, but no building seems to have been done until some date between 1799 and 1825, as a 'dock' is marked in the latter year by Sharp, Greenwood and Fowler, but not in the former by Forrest.

The harbour was actually built, at whatever precise date, by two farmers, Brodie of Thorntonloch and Lee of Skateraw, who worked the local limestone quarries and kilns, shipping limestone to the Devon Iron Works and importing coal. A kiln (NT77NW 68) stands beside it. Though now ruined and silted up, its plan can be recovered from the 6-inch OS map, which was surveyed in 1853. It lies on the rocks immediately SE of the inlet, and so far up the foreshore that the depth of water inside it can never have been great; it was longish and rather narrow in shape, and was aligned from SE to NW with its entrance at the inlet's S corner. Its seaward side was formed by a breakwater-pier, about 280ft [85.4m] long, which returned at its SE end to reach the land, distant about 100ft [30.5m] at a point just E of the kiln. The NW end of the harbour was closed partially by a cross-pier about 100ft [30.5m] long. The landward (SW) side must have been built as a quay, as it carried a crane immediately N of the kiln. By the landward end of the cross-pier, two ponds are marked, but the one that is still partially open is clearly an old quarry, and they were therefore probably not designed to flush away encroaching sand.

Of the foregoing structures little now survives, the harbour evidently having been overwhelmed by the sea at some time between the Ordnance surveys of 1853 and 1892. It is now completely filled up with sand and shingle, and a storm-beach has been piled up on its landward side destroying, or at any rate concealing, the quay in front of the kiln. The breakwater-pier is reduced, in its NW portion, to a rickle of debris, in which, however, the lines of its faces may be traced; it was about 30ft [9.1m] wide, and had a rounded end which returned south-westwards for about 12ft [3.7m], with a rounded internal angle. The masonry is of long, thinnish and well dressed slabs, neatly shaped to curves, but not secured with cramps or keys. The SE part, however, to a length of about 115ft [35.1m] consists of a tongue of natural rock, cut back on either side to a breadth of some 30ft [9.1m]; its faces are trimmed vertical, and its slightly dished upper surface is left unworked. The fact that a mooring-ring and a stout iron pin are set in its inner lip indicates that this tongue of rock itself served as the pier and was not simply a foundation for a masonry superstructure now washed away.

The returned pier, shown on the OS map as closing the harbour's SE end, has disappeared completely, although some of its landward portion may be hidden under the storm-beach, but the end of the breakwater into which it fitted, and an adjoining rock just beyond, have been cut out deeply to provide a firm joint. Of the cross-pier at the NW end, only the terminal few feet appear through the banked-up sand; this work was 6ft [1.8m] wide, and connected with a pear-shaped pier-head 19ft [5.8m] long by 16ft 6ins [5m] wide, now standing to a height of two courses. The entrance between the pier-head and the end of the breakwater must have been some 25ft [7.6m] wide.

Two unexplained features were noted on the seaward side of the breakwater, and thus below High Water mark:

1. A jetty or groyne, about 7ft [2.1m] wide, consisting of a double row of large, roughly-shaped blocks, which runs seawards for some 50ft [15.2m] from under the tumbled debris. The blocks are set on edge, and transversely to the angle of work. Their point of contact with the breakwater footings is covered by fallen stones, and their relationship is consequently uncertain.

2. A longer and bulkier work, with a greatest height of 6ft [1.8m] which runs out in much the same way but curves round north-westwards at its outer end; although the terminal hook is now ruined, it seems originally to have enclosed the seaward side of a rock-cut pocket measuring some 50ft [15.2m] by 30ft [9.1m]. The very large blocks of which the straight part is built are set on edge, transversely to the angle of work, but in one place have a few courses of normal masonry as a foundation. The appearance of the whole contrasts strongly with the neat coursing of the breakwater, with the footings of which it does not seem to have been in contact. It is tempting to regard these two works as predecessors of the built harbour, and as associated with an earlier phase of the limestone industry; on this showing, the pocket in the rocks could have provided a berth for a boat, and the jetty a low-tide landing-place.

A Graham 1971.

Skateraw Harbour

This harbour was marked 'Dock' on Sharp, Greenwood and Fowler's map (1825) but not on Forrest's map of 1799; the NSA indicates that it served for the import of coal for the adjoining limekilns as well as for the export of lime products. The North Sea Pilot credits it with a depth of 5 feet at high water, but it is now completely ruinous and largely silted up with sand.

The existing remains consistt of a breakwater, now reduced to a rickle of stone blocks about 200 fet long, which ran westwards into a bay continuing the straight shore line on the east with the footings of a roundel 15 feet in diameter to landward of the W end of the rickel. There is an iron upright on each, no doubt marking the entrance to the harbour. The masonry is lage , well-shaped andblocks of the local limestone , which is easy split and dress; the footings of the roundel, in particular, being carefully wrought to a curve. A stretch of the outer footings of the breakwater can be traced among the ruins.

A Graham, 1965-1966.