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Dunbeath, Portormin Harbour, Ice House
Icehouse (19th Century)
Site Name Dunbeath, Portormin Harbour, Ice House
Classification Icehouse (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Dunbeath Harbour
Canmore ID 8027
Site Number ND12NE 11
NGR ND 16611 29393
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/8027
- Council Highland
- Parish Latheron
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Caithness
- Former County Caithness
ND12NE 11 1660 2940
See also:
ND12NE 6.00 ND 165 293 Portormin harbour
ND12NE 6.01 ND c. 1659 2934 crane
ND12NE 12 ND 1656 2944 fishing store
ND12NE 13 ND 1627 2952 footbridge
ND12NE 14 ND 1666 2935 salmon bothy
ND12NE 18 ND 164 294 hand winch
ND12NE 11 1660 2940
A large vaulted ice house excavated from the hillside and constructed from rubble blocks.
J R Hume 1977
Publication Account (1986)
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).
