JumbleDuck
Well-known member
I'm afraid I don't know the answer, but I have just found this in a box of slides from my late parents' house and I have a vague idea of the general area. Can anyone pinpoint it?
Wherewozzit?
- Thread starter JumbleDuck
- Start date
Aja
Well-known member
Looks like stretch of coast between stonehaven to portlethen. Downies, Muchalls that area.
#Humblebee maybe know?
#Humblebee maybe know?
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
It may be near here, also location unknown ...
and/or this distinctive looking lighthouse (ditto).
and/or this distinctive looking lighthouse (ditto).
westhinder
Well-known member
The lighthouse looks a lot like St Abb’s Head.
This was the view from seaward when I last sailed past:
This was the view from seaward when I last sailed past:
sigimae
New member
I reckon the first is Pettico Wick Bay,
Then Eyemouth pre visitors pontoon, Cargreen House where my eldest wed last year is a give away in that picture and as suggested lastly St Abbs Head.
Then Eyemouth pre visitors pontoon, Cargreen House where my eldest wed last year is a give away in that picture and as suggested lastly St Abbs Head.
status
Member
My first thought was the trawler was at Eyemouth, which would tie with st abbs
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
Google confirms both Eyemouth
and St Abbs Head
and makes sense because my grandparents had connection with St Abbs and used to holiday there. My "vague idea of the general area" was Berwickshire ... could the harbour in the first picture be somewhere there too? I've looked at the 2 1/2" OS maps via (streetmap.co.uk) all the way from Berwick to Torness and can't see anything promising.
and St Abbs Head
and makes sense because my grandparents had connection with St Abbs and used to holiday there. My "vague idea of the general area" was Berwickshire ... could the harbour in the first picture be somewhere there too? I've looked at the 2 1/2" OS maps via (streetmap.co.uk) all the way from Berwick to Torness and can't see anything promising.
SaltIre
Well-known member
Eyemouth? Pah - here's another image from an old glass photographic plate...
sigimae
New member
Pettico Wick BayI'm afraid I don't know the answer, but I have just found this in a box of slides from my late parents' house and I have a vague idea of the general area. Can anyone pinpoint it?
sigimae
New member
Just around the corner from St Abbs!
dava
Member
Pettico wick bay, just west of St. Abbs.
I always wondered about the design of that little slipway with the large rock at the end.
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
Many thanks, all. Anyone been in there? Looks as if it might be a nice spot for a small boat in good conditions. I think I can be excused for missing it on the map.
Incidentally, what a wonderful set of placenames. Well up to Galloway weirdness, and we have both "Point of the Snibe" and "Rig of the Jarkness".
That struck me too. Perhaps the rock fell after the slipway was built?
Kelpie
Well-known member
I'm a bit late to the party but SWMBO recognised Eyemouth instantly- in fact a few weeks ago she spent a week in the little tower building on the right hand side of the photo.
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
I got Eyemouth and St Abbs straight away; I spent several years in my teens sailing from Dunbar on my Dad's boat and visited Eyemouth on the trip from the Clyde to Titchmarsh a few years ago. Cargreen House is well worth a visit; because it's a quiet sort of place these days, you forget a) that Eyemouth is the closest Scottish port to England and b) that taxation and so forth differed between the two countries as recently as the 18th century, making smuggling between the two a viable proposition!
I got the bay with the slipway wrong - my first thought was that it was the bay next to the Ship Rock lighthouse on Sanda, which is quite like that.
I got the bay with the slipway wrong - my first thought was that it was the bay next to the Ship Rock lighthouse on Sanda, which is quite like that.
dava
Member
I've spent a lot of time round there fishing and camping, I was told by an old st abbs fisherman that the bay was where they landed the oil for the original lighthouse which was then transported by horse and cart to the lighthouse, problem I have with that story is that the terrain between the 2 is pretty extreme, there's a track close to the bay but no track down.
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
Is there not a track going down in the foreground in the first picture I posted? Lighthouses used to be supplied in all sorts of hair-raising ways - I think the jetty for Ardnamurchan light is the one in the middle of this ... I've heard that it was rather a tight squeeze. Anyone been in there?
dava
Member
There is a bit of a track there but it seems to disappear into wilderness before it reaches the top and it's really steep, I mean could of been a bit different 100 years ago but I'd imagine it taking some effort to get a wagon load of oil up there. They reckon it was first powered by whale oil actually, which would tie in with the oil being delivered by sea.Is there not a track going down in the foreground in the first picture I posted? Lighthouses used to be supplied in all sorts of hair-raising ways - I think the jetty for Ardnamurchan light is the one in the middle of this ... I've heard that it was rather a tight squeeze. Anyone been in there?
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
Here's the 1856 25" map
and here's the 1899 one
At some point in between the track was improved, the slipway built and a building put over or beside the spring.
The lighthouse was completed in 1862, so it looks distinctly possible to me that the slipway was built to supply it and perhaps the spring was harvested for fresh water. Additional evidence: the Stevensons did beautiful stone work even for support structures (see Erraid for examples) and that is an awful nice slipway.
Alternatively, or additionally, some lighthouses used inclined railways to get the stuff up - maybe the "track" is actually a trackbed? I can't find any maps surveyed between the 1850s and 1890s (I'm using the NLS map room website) so a tramway may have come and gone in the interim.
dava
Member
Here's the 1856 25" map
and here's the 1899 one
At some point in between the track was improved, the slipway built and a building put over or beside the spring.
The lighthouse was completed in 1862, so it looks distinctly possible to me that the slipway was built to supply it and perhaps the spring was harvested for fresh water. Additional evidence: the Stevensons did beautiful stone work even for support structures (see Erraid for examples) and that is an awful nice slipway.
Alternatively, or additionally, some lighthouses used inclined railways to get the stuff up - maybe the "track" is actually a trackbed? I can't find any maps surveyed between the 1850s and 1890s (I'm using the NLS map room website) so a tramway may have come and gone in the interim.
That's seriously impressive research, I love it when old fisherman's tales seem to ring true! That particular area is special to me, there's nothing like walking round them cliffs and soaking up the views.
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
I wish it was, but really I just poked round National Library of Scotland - Map Images a bit. The interface takes a bit of learning, but once you have the hang of it it's an amazing resource, including all out-of-copyright (ie 50+ years old) OS maps of Scotland in all scales from one-inch to fifty-inch from the 1820s onwards. All the old Admiralty charts too.