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Portencross, South Harbour

Harbour (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Portencross, South Harbour

Classification Harbour (Period Unassigned)

Alternative Name(s) Port Crawford; Portencross, Old Harbour

Canmore ID 94094

Site Number NS14NE 27

NGR NS 17559 48936

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/94094

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

  • Council North Ayrshire
  • Parish West Kilbride
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Cunninghame
  • Former County Ayrshire

Archaeology Notes

NS14NE 27 17559 48936

See also:

NS14NE 33 NS 17559 49090 North Harbour

NS14NE 36 NS 17490 49215 to c. 17542 49214 Pier

(Name centred 1748 4895) Old Harbour [NAT]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1987.

Old Harbour [NAT] (name centred NS 17546 48938)

OS (GIS) AIB, June 2006.

Quoting Survey of Firth of Clyde 1846 by Capt. C G Robinson RN, and Admiralty Chart 2149, Mr Robertson states that this was called Port Crawford in 1846.

Information from Mr I Robertson, 161 Maryhill Road, Glasgow to Ordnance Survey, 12 July 1965.

(Location cited as NS 175 491). Portencross: at Portencross there are two harbours and a pier. The pier (NS14NE 36) is not marked on the OS map of 1855-7, and is stated locally to have been built about the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. A 'small quay' is recorded as having been built in 1802, but this cannot be found. An apparently suitable for it, at the modern pier, was investigated under water by some members of a diving club, but without result. The quay could take vessels of up to 50 tons, and it was used for the shipping of local produce to markets in the Clyde area.

Both the harbours, which are close together, take the form of small tidal inlets in the littoral rocks, at a point where the coast is partially protected from southerly and south-easterly winds by Farland Head [name: NS 178 414]. The Old Harbour (NS14NE 27), the more southerly of the two, pierces the rocks as a narrow V-shaped channel, the sandy bottom of which, exposed at low tide, is only about 20ft [6.1m] wide. The sides of the channel are remarkably smooth, though no positive marks of rock-cutting could be identified. Above the narrow neck, the inlet widens to form a basin up to 30yds [27.4m] in breadth, and the margins of this have been partially enclosed by a facing of large, roughly-squared blocks, of which one or two courses survive. The landward sector of the basin consists of a steep shingly beach, from which a track leads off south-eastwards. The S side of the channel is formed by the flank of a low, rocky bluff, on the edge of which stands a small semi-ruinous tower-house (NS14NE 2), attributed by MacGibbon and Ross to the 14th century; the pathway leading to its door has been built with slabs along the lip of the basin and the rock-face below it seems to have been smoothed off and artificially steepened.

The North Harbour (NS14NE 33) resembles its neighbour in a general way, but is larger, measuring 120yds [109.8m] in length by 17yds [15.5m] at narrowest. Its inner portion curves from SE to SW, forming a basin which reaches, at its inner southern end, to within 100yds [91.5m] of the NE sector of that of the Old Harbour. Its sides are faced with drystone masonry in large coursed masonry, the build being fairly homogenous though a short stretch of the W sector shows rather rougher work in large blocks. At the head, there is a shingly beach, with a rough sandy ramp leading up at right angles to the terminal section of the landward part of the enclosure.

The parish minister, writing in 1794, makes passing reference to the 'inlet or creek that forms the port', but leaves us in doubt as to which inlet he had in mind, or indeed as to whether he regarded the two harbours as separate units at all. In another passage, when discussing the revival of the local fisheries, he urges the formation of a sheltered as easily accessible fishing-station, the 'port' of his day being exposed to gales and having a rocky entrance, while the boats had also to be pulled up the beach.

The value, in a poorly developed region, of this kind of small local port is illustrated by a passage in the New Statistical Account, which calls for better roads to improve communications in the countryside; while another of its functions in the early 19th centuries is illustrated by a local tradition, preserved in Kintyre, of wherries plying to Portencross with cargo and passengers from Skipness. The passenger's fare was one shilling.

A Graham 1984.

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