Dunbeath, Portormin Harbour, Salmon Bothy

These two buildings, and a rubble-built warehouse situated a short distance to the N, form part of the herring-and salmon-fishing station which developed in stages around the mouth of the Dunbeath Water from the early 19th century onwards. The large two-chambered ice-house (ND 166294) is built into the side of the headland above the quayside. The W face of the building measures 20 ft 10 in (6.35m) in width, and the extrados of the semicircular barrel vault is overlaid with turf; the vault incorporates a high-level trapdoor enabling ice to be fed into the inner freezing-chamber. The small outer chamber was evidently used for washing and weighing the fish, and there is a drain-outlet immediately in front of the main doorway. The opening in the cross-wall between the two chambers has an inner and outer stout wooden door, and during the refrigeration process the intervening space was filled with sawdust as an insulator in order to maintain a low temperature within the inner chamber. This chamber measures 18 ft (5.49m) by 15 ft (4.57m) internally, and is floored at a slightly lower level to facilitate drainage of the melted ice. The floors throughout are of flagstone.

The bothy (ND 166293) stands on the E side of the mouth of the Dunbeath Water, built partly into the headland with its gable facing seaward. Externally, it is a plain single-storeyed and gabled structure measuring 40 ft 3 in (12.27m) in length by 19 ft 6 in (5.94m) transversely. Inside, it has two main compartments divided by a stone cross-wall: an equipment store takes up about two-thirds of the space; the other compartment, which appears to have been remodelled, includes a foreman's office and bunk-bed in the SW quarter, screened by a timber partition, and a range of four wooden bunks lining the E wall. The floors are flagged throughout, and there is a fireplace in each gable-wall, that in the store being set across the S angle and having a curved rear wall.

Information from ‘Monuments of Industry: An Illustrated Historical Record’, (1986).