Crombie Point, Pier

NT08SW 112 0308 8441 to 0318 8462

See also NT08SW 107.

Crombie Pier [NAT]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1990.

(Location cited as NT 301 845). Crombie Point, Fife. In 1603, Robert Colville of Cleish obtained the right to build 'lie bulwarkis, portis et havannis' between high- and low-water marks on the lands lying E of the Torry and W of the Ironmill Burns. He was further authorised to charge dues, including 'anchoragia et lie hevinsilver', and to apply them 'pro sustentatione dict. propugnaculorum et portuum', with the additional concession that a single sasine should cover everything payable 'apud portum lie Quailheavin'. The identification of this place is not completely certain, as Blaeu, the only authority for its position, marks it on one plate at Crombie Point, and on another in Ironmill Bay, but either would agree with the charter. No record has been found to show that this Colville laird ever actually built any breakwaters, ports or havens as the charter envisaged, and in fact a local author states, though without quoting his source, that Crombie became important only in the middle of the 18th century, when Robert Ayton Colville built a pier as a substitute for the 'Auld Pier' at Torryburn [name: NT 023 861]. However this may be, by 1775, at latest, a pier of unusual length had certainly been built on this site, carrying a railway from Torryburn, and there need be no doubt that this was the same as the very long pier now existing. In describing the pier as ';small'; in 1843, the writer in the New Statistical Account must be supposed to have had in mind the part of it at which the ships were actually worked, and to have regarded the rest as a kind of elevated causeway.

The pier, whatever its history, runs out SW-wards from the shore across a wide zone of tidal rocks and mud, the rocks being largely flattish and rising little above the level of the mud. It was probably given its remarkable length, of some 920ft [280.5m] to bring its head as far to seaward as possible, where the deeper water could be reached. The landward end is of the same build as a sea-wall which runs just above high-water mark, and the first 165ft [50.3m] of its length are on what is now dry land. From high water mark, it continues straight for a further 335ft [102.1m], its breadth, where the top is intact, being 12ft [3.66m]. Beyond this point, it diverges slightly southwards, and at 825ft [251.5m] develops a definite SE-ward angle of some 30 degrees, on which line it continues to the end. The divergence seems to represent a second phase of construction, as it has been effected by adding a massive facing-wall to the E side, the dressed stones of the original face appearing within the core and being traceable, where the upper surface has vanished, for some 70ft [21.3m]. This arrangement is accompanied by some increase in the breadth of the pier, but measurements - eg. 23ft [7m] where the original face disappears - are unreliable owing to the ruinous state of the top and faces. The faces are of large squared blocks in courses, the core being of undressed material and the top unpaved. The whole structure is much ruined, but intact parts stand up to 9ft [2.7m] in height. About 140ft [42.7m] short of the angle, on the E side, some steps of a stair are tumbled in the debris, and another stair is shown on the OS map as mounting the terminal portion. Heavy iron mooring-rings occur in places, and the stump of a wooden post near the end.

The outer end of the pier partly encloses, and protects from the W and SW, a small tidal pocket which is slightly deeper than the mud, sands and flat-topped rocks to landward. Some of the rocks on the W side of this area show comparatively unwaethered features, as if their faces had been quarried back to enlarge the anchorage.

A Graham 1971.

Site recorded by Maritime Fife during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, Kincardine to Fife Ness 1996.

The Torry Burn enters the Inner Firth of Forth at NT 022 860. Ironmill Bay is centred around NT 052 838.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 30 March 2006.