Hopeman Harbour, Moray Firth

NJ16NW 60.00 centred 1450 6994

NJ16NW 60.01 NJ 1450 6988 hand crane

Extends onto map sheet NJ17SW.

For nearby (and presumably associated) ice house (NJ 1458 6966) and warehouse (NJ 1456 6964), see NJ16NW 61 and NJ16NW 62 respectively.

(Location cited as NJ 145 705). Hopeman Harbour, built c. 1838, extended 1865 and c. 1890. A single-basin masonry harbour, formed by a straight and an L-plan pier; enlarged by the construction of a second, larger, concrete L-plan pier, the blocking up of the original entrance, and the breaching of the original L-plan pier to make a new entrance.

J R Hume 1977

Apart from an uncorroborated statement by Groome that Hopeman was founded in 1805, the earliest substantiated evidence dates from 1833, when a plan by George McWilliam shows the harbour in its present postion, with a small bay to the W marked 'Boat Hythe'. In 1845 the harbour was recorded as having 'of late been allowed to go almost completely to wreck'. Two years later, there was noted a cove in the rock which was used chiefly for the export of stone and covered by a pier which made 'a sort of outer and inner harbour' (Reports of the Parliamentary Commissioners of Harbours, 1847); the latter feature had an entrance 36 ft (11m) wide and the outer harbour was presumably the boat-landing or hythe that was protected by the harbour-works constructed on the rocks to its E. The village then supported 38 fishing boats and was also used for local trade.

In 1844-5, the pier was breached in a gale, the gap being subsequently made into a boom-gate. Groome states that that the werecked harbour was replaced by anothers in 1838; this was enlarged in 1865 and further improved in 1868 and 1901.

Comparison of McWilliam's map with that of the Ordnance Survey suggests that the pre-1844 harbour was a narrow, oblong basin aligned N-S, with a pier crossing and overlapping the N end in a manner which left an entrance in the NW corner; the sides of the rebuilt structure were then not neatly parallel and the N pier returned sharply southwards to an entrance about one-third of the way down the W side.

Wooden wedges can be seen securing the blocks of the harbour walls, but it is unclear to which phase of construction they belong.

NSA 1845; FH Groome 1901; A Graham 1979.

Air photographs: AAS/97/12/G27/10 and AAS/97/12/CT.

NMRS, MS/712/29.