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North Queensferry Harbour, Pierhead, Signal House
Beacon (19th Century)
Site Name North Queensferry Harbour, Pierhead, Signal House
Classification Beacon (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Ferry Pier; Ferry House; Tower House; St Margaret's Haven; St Margaret's Bay; Queensferry Narrows; Queensferry Passage
Canmore ID 50961
Site Number NT18SW 98.04
NGR NT 13101 80331
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/50961
- Council Fife
- Parish Inverkeithing
- Former Region Fife
- Former District Dunfermline
- Former County Fife
NT18SW 98.04 13101 80331
Not to be confused with beacon ('Royal Navy signal house') at NT 13129 80359, for which see NT18SW 98.05.
This structure is depicted, but not noted, on the 1966 edition of the OS 1:2500 map.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 6 March 2006.
Photographic Survey (September 1960)
Photographic survey by the Scottish National Buildings Record in September 1960.
Publication Account (1999)
At the foot of the main street are two nineteenth-century buildings with close associations with the Ferry Passage and shipping. The first, a small hexagonal lighthouse figure 14, was erected c 1810. Built of droved ashlar, it is capped with a copper lantern. Nearby, and of a similar date, stands the Tower House, or Signal House, or Mount Hooly figure 10. An octagonal building, with a modern extension to the north, it functioned as the waiting room for ferry travellers and the base of Captain Scott, the first superintendent of the Queensferry Passage. Captain Scott's dwelling house, Seabank Cottage, still stands on the south side of the present main road leading westwards out of the village.
Mount Hooly stands at the head of the Town Pier figure 13. Rebuilt in 1810-13, according to the plans of engineer John Rennie and extended in 1828 by Thomas Telford, this was the landing point for the ferry boats crossing from South Queensferry.
Information from ‘Historic North Queensferry and the Peninsula: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1999).
