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Whaligoe Harbour

Fishing Station (18th Century), Harbour (18th Century), Quay (19th Century)

Site Name Whaligoe Harbour

Classification Fishing Station (18th Century), Harbour (18th Century), Quay (19th Century)

Alternative Name(s) Whaligoe, Fishing Station, Harbour And Quay

Canmore ID 9007

Site Number ND34SW 121

NGR ND 32109 40250

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/9007

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Highland
  • Parish Wick
  • Former Region Highland
  • Former District Caithness
  • Former County Caithness

Archaeology Notes

ND34SW 121.00 32109 40250

For Square of Whaligoe (adjacent to W), see ND34SW 73 and ND34SW 119.

For (associated) Whaligoe Steps (centred ND 32105 40273), see ND34SW 121.01.

(Location cited as ND 321 403). Whaligoe. In 1769 Pennant noted the 365 steps (ND34SW 282) in the face of the 360ft (109.4m) cliff, up which fish were carried from boats using the inlet. These steps give access to the N shore of the inlet, and to the remains of a stone-built quay, approximately 30yds (27.4m) long and 11yds (10m) wide. With their low balustrade, formed, like the steps themselves, of Caithness flagstones, the steps have been partially repaired at intervals up to the present. Many are broken, and parts of the structure are in some danger from landslips. Five hairpin bends take advantage of natural inequalities in the cliff face. 21 more steps lead down from the main quay, on which stands the ruin of the harbour house, to what is now open shore near the head of the inlet.

At least as late as 1905, there was a third flight of smaller steps, nearer still to the head of the inlet and descending to the tide line. The OS maps of 1868, 1871 and 1905, though far from clear, seem to indicate that there was, for some time, structure at a lower level than that of the surviving quay. Levelling of the shore between this quay and the head of the inlet would have had obvious advantages, and may perhaps have been the first of the improvements to have been achieved, possibly even at the same time as the main steps were built. Even more difficult to interpret is the mapping of the area, now also reverted to open shore, below the long face of the main quay. None of the early maps distinguishes clearly between the line marking high water springs, and that denoting structural improvement to the shore line along this stretch, but the angular shape indicated at the tip of this area appears to contrast strongly with the natural conformation of the neighbouring shore lines. It may be that an oroginally natural or slightly improved rock slip along this face of the main quay was at one time paved. The main flight of steps is the only structure which was certainly built before 1850.

The surviving 20ft ()6m) high warping post, the base of which has completely disappeared from the rocks in which it is set, and the iron rings, one in the sea-face of the harbour house and at least three more in offshore rocks, may be early features or successors of such, since it must always have been exceedingly difficult to obtain safe passage into the inlet. The remains of two winches, probably of much later date, one at the head of the inlet and one at the foot of the steps, witness to the same struggles. The two niches and the open chimney in the supporting wall of the lowest flight of the main steps may have been used for lights. One feature of the main quay, suggesting that parts of it, at least, are later than the steps, is the iron basin set in the broken end nearest the open sea. Part of an iron ladder may be seen projecting from the stonework beneath the basin.

The steps themselves are as impressive a structure as any harbour work of the 18th or early 19th century in Scotland. The achievement of building them illustrates the strength of the contemporary need to work the fishery of this coast, and a large house, Whaligoe Square, near the head of the steps shows that wealth did accrue to some. The place-name has an early Christian origin (Holy goe), but whales' jawbones are set uplocally, and this latter association has overlaid the former.

A Graham and J Gordon 1988.

Neither Whaligoe Harbour nor the Steps of Whaligoe are noted as such on the current edition of the OS 1:10,000 map (no date available). The Square of Whaligoe (ND34SW 73 and ND34SW 119 ) is situated on the cliff to the W of the harbour.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 23 February 2006.

Activities

Publication Account (1995)

Whaligoe is a fishing harbour formed out of a creek where anyone would have thought it impossible, both from the narrowness of the creek and the height of the cliff above. Telford called it 'a dreadful place' and it may indeed inspire dread. Nevertheless the shortage of east coast harbours was such that extraordinary lengths were taken to use this creek. A flight of some 330 flagstone steps descend the precipitous cliffs from the fish curing station above to the quay below, with a few resting places on the way. The steps are mid-18th century, repaired in the early 19th century when the present tiny rubble platform quay was built. Boats were hauled into the creek stern first and moored each side, or in times of storm hauled right out of the sea onto the quay. Part of a winch survives. In 1808 seven boats used Whaligoe and in 1828 some twenty-four boats.

Women had to go up and down the steps carrying nets or fish on their backs. Several travellers saw Whaligoe in use and remarked on it with astonishment. Thus Pennant in 1769 'though the height of one of these rocks is surprising yet the country people have made steps by which they go up and down, carrying heavy burdens on their backs, which a stranger without seeing would scarcely believe'. Thomas Dick Lauder wrote in 1841 'the curious enquirer finds himself on the edge of the cliffs which drop downwards above a couple of hundred feet into the wild and narrow voe of Whaligoe, his eyes at once falling from that giddy height upon the topmasts of a large schooner receiving her herring cargo'.

At the top of the steps is a former herring curing sta ion , a two-storey building with one-storey wings on one side of a walled yard, now a private house. Further up the main road is Whaligoe Mill (NO 321404), a 19th-century mill with a former kiln to the rear backed by a lower wing. The mill has also been converted to a house.

Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Highlands’, (1995).

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