Newburgh, Inches, Quay And Warehouse

NK02NW 20 0041 2573

See also NK02NW 18 and NK02NW 19.

(Classified as 'Warehouse and remains of quay': location cited [incorrectly] as NK 005 267). Probably 18th century. A 2-storey and attic, 8-bay, harled-rubble warehouse, probably a granary, and the much-decayed remains of a rubble quay.

J R Hume 1977.

(Location cited as NK 004 255). Newburgh's utility as a harbour, notwithstanding its apparently favourable situation inside the estuary of the Ythan, has been prejudiced by unstable littoral sands and shallow and obstructed waters. Such as it was, it seems to have been kept only largely by the backwater of the falling tides, the river's own current not having been strong enough to flush out the sand. As a document of the 17th century puts it, 'arenosa littors portui nocent, qui non nisi minoribus navibus aditur'. Collins likewise calls it a 'place only for small vessels'.

In 1793 it was described as a fishing village in decay, its former total of seven boats having been shrunk to a single one, and this was used mainly for the piloting of craft bound upstream. Newburgh's situation was 'exceedingly convenient' for the commerce of the surrounding parishes, and a large number of ships used the river, but it possessed no harbour even though one was badly need. Smuggling was rife, and the six or seven ale-houses were chiefly frequented by sailors, smugglers and fishermen. In 1840, ships were being loaded and unloaded, though the numbers involved are not indicated; mention is made of the boulders and fragements of rock that encumbered the fairway. Eight vessels were then owned in the village, and smuggling had been checked. All this evidence of maritime activity relates, of course, to comparatively recent times, but that Newburgh possessed some importance at least as far back as the earlier 17th century is proved by the fact that it is marked on Blaeu's map. Indeed, the existence of a burial-ground and chapel-site (NK02NW 8) formerly owned by the abbey of Old Deer (NJ94NE 5) recalls the hospitals or chapels founded at many ferry-terminals and exits from mountain passes, and suggests that the landing-place of a ferry across the Ythan was in use here in pre-Reformation times.

The harbour is now represented by the remains of a quay set on a tidal inlet, with causeway connexion to the mainland, a short distance above the inflow of the Foveran Burn. There is nothing to suggest that the structures antedate the 19th century, and much of the work is quite recent. Near the landward end of the causeway, however, there stands a warehouse about 95 ft (28.9m) long, the W portion of which, at any rate, might well be of the later 18th century. The E end seems to be an addition, and the central doorway has been narrowed from a larger opening. An outside stair at the E end is ruinous, the roof is of slate, and there are the remains of a loading-pulley.

A Graham 1979.

J Blaeu 1654; G Collins 1776; OSA; NSA 1845; Harbours 1847; W Macfarlane 1906-8.

Air photograph: AAS/97/04/CT.

NMRS, MS/712/29.