HISTORY & HERITAGE
The Old Harbour
Findlay Pirie
The Old Harbour and its Buildings
The Old Harbour at the Beginning of the 20th Century
The Old Harbour
In 1693, at the Laird of the Boyne, Patrick Ogilvie's instigation, Portsoy had the first improved harbour in the Moray Firth. Built originally to facilitate the export of the Laird’s marble, the harbour soon led to Portsoy becoming a thriving port, exporting and importing from a wide area in Banffshire and Morayshire to ports in Scotland & England and eastwards to Holland, Germany and the Baltic.
By the 18th century Portsoy was attracting high profile merchants and ship-owners, with many business interests and large personal estates. Their fortunes were promoted by their smuggling enterprises. Smuggling at the time was rife and fairly easy to operate, as preventative officers were few and far between. And the merchants had any number of wealthy customers, spread amongst the Lairds, the Gentry, the legal Profession, and the administrators who were willing to pay for the illicit goods arriving from the Continent.
But all good things come to an end. The Customs organisation began to get more efficient, began to operate larger and faster vessels and they recruited many more dedicated officers. Concerned that smugglers being sent to Banff for trial seemed to escape punishment, they diverted the cases to Aberdeen in order to obtain guilty verdicts. With the possibility of now landing in jail, with the loss of ships to the French privateers, together with the normal hazardous weather conditions the sailing ships had to endure, the merchants businesses now began to suffer financial hardship. All three of Portsoy’s most prominent smuggling merchants went bankrupt; one died in jail, one was believed to have been murdered whilst sheltering in the Debtors' Sanctuary in Edinburgh and the third disappeared to the Continent.
By 1800 the party at Portsoy was over. Other ports on the Moray Firth were improving their harbours and building up their merchant shipping fleets, and Portsoy’s shipmasters and their sailing vessels moved to the neighbouring ports. The town’s trade declined. Merchants became respectable – now paying all the relevant Customs charges on goods that were imported. The merchant sailing fleet was reduced considerably. By the mid 19th century, fishermen from Portknockie began to move their homes and boats to Portsoy to take advantage of much safer and better facilities.
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The Corfe House (Orig. Lord Findlater's Granary)
The Corfe House - Now Housing the Marble Shop
The oldest surviving commercial building in Portsoy
The Corfe House, together with several other buildings in the Shorehead area, is now in the ownership of the
The Granary, Portsoy, Banffshire.
By Elizabeth Beaton, Keam Schoolhouse, Hopeman.
A communication from John Adam (1), a member of the illustrious Adam family of architects, belongs at first sight to the field of architectural history rather than of vernacular building. But, when the vernacular embraces traditional buildings besides building traditions, the boundary blurs. Adam's involvement was with an estate granary (Fig.1) at Portsoy on the Banffshire coast, almost certainly that now known as Lord Findlater's Corf House. (2) The following letter was written in 1765 by John Adam to the Earl of Findlater and Seafield, Cullen, Banffshire about his proposed harbour-side storehouse
To : - The Earl of Findlater and Seafield.(4)
My Lord,
I have the honour of your Lordship of this date, and would wait upon your Lordship to give the answer. But as I must go to Fife tomorrow morning early by appointment, I hope you will accept this manner of returning an answer.
As to Cellars under the granary, I do not imagine they would be advisable in point of expense (sic), as well as convenience. To make them answer in point of convenience, they should be sunk under the level of the Ground. But then the expense of digging out the Rock would far exceed what would be got for them: And I am afraid they would be liable to underwater. And if they were kept totally above ground, it would raise the Granary higher than one would wish in point of convenience. As to dampness arising from the Ground to the meall Girnells (sic), I do not think there can be much danger from that, especially as the floor is proposed (if I remember right) to be raised about 2 feet above the level of the Ground, which should be filled up with Lyme riddlings or such dry Rubbish, under the flagging as Pavement. And that I think would effectually prevent any danger. Indeed I do not see from whence damp is to come, except from the high ground behind the House; But I would propose that it should be cut down, as the distance of 2 or 2½ feet from the Back Wall, and some deeper than the level of the floor, so as to serve for a Drain and it should be made with a good descent if possible to both ends) that the rains, or what weeps from the rock, may run easily.
I should not imagine that at the width drawn, there would be any need for posts under the Centre(sic) of the Joisting. If it shall be thought necessary to make the Granary wider, then Posts would be very proper.
But I kept it narrow both to save putting down much of the Rock behind and a wide span of the roof. For these reasons I should think it improper to increase the width, unless it shall be found upon further examination that the Rock will admit it without much trouble. No doubt the width may be increased a little without much addition to the expense. But if it was to any degree, the Charge would be very considerably augmented.
I have the honour to be with the greatest Respect and Esteem
My Lord, Your Lordship’s most faithfull and obedient Hum. servn.
John Adam, North Merchston, 19 May 1765
Girnals (Scots) - estate granaries/warehouses/stores, were secure repositories for grain, meal and other commodities received by landlords as rent in kind, the accepted method of agricultural rental until the turn of the 1800s. Most surviving examples in northern Scotland date from the 18th century, but there is a late 17th century store at Portmahomack on the Easter Ross coast, the property of George Mackenzie, Lord Tarbat, 1st Earl of Cromarty. Though utilitarian in appearance and function, girnals were important within the hierarchy of estate buildings. They were usually sited on the coast to store goods pending export by sea to markets at home or abroad in order to realise cash. Until roads and bridges (and later the railway network) were developed during the 19th‑century, marine transport was paramount. John Adam, however, when referring to the meall Girnells in the granary at Portsoy seems to indicate storage on the upper floors above any dampness arising from the Ground, where generous ventilation made these spaces suitable for grain and meal storage. (5)
Portsoy, between Banff and Buckie on the Banffshire coast, belonged to the Ogilvie, later Ogilvie Grant, Earls of Findlater and Seafield, substantial landowners in Banffshire and Moray with the family seat in Cullen. There is little natural shelter on this bold and rocky coast (6). Exceptionally, however, at Portsoy there was a safe harbour and Bullwork by 1701 (7). The Old Harbour is a small, square basin bounded by the quayside of Shorehead on two sides and enclosed by piers east and north, exploiting the natural shelter of the high ground of Doonie Doonie Point and protected eastwards by the rocky promontory of Craig Duff. Variations in the masonry indicate different construction periods; the wavy line of the harbour in the Feuing Plan of 1802 (8), contrasting with the firm outline of the piers, suggests exploitation of the rocky shoreline rather than the present regular, vertical rubble masonry harbour wall. However, this walling was probably constructed soon after Robert Johnston had prepared his plan in 1802.
18th‑century merchant houses in Portsoy testify to a prosperous mercantile community. Besides farm produce from the hinterland, particularly grain, flax was grown and there were bleach‑fields in the village. By 1842 there were eight vessels belonging to the Port of Portsoy... eight to ten foreign vessels, chiefly from different parts of the Baltic, annually visit this port, bringing with them bones and taking cargoes of herrings in return. Besides the export of herrings, grain is also frequently shipped to a large amount. (9). A less obvious export were artifacts made from Portsoy Marble, a red or green serpentine quarried in the ordinary manner, and manufactured into chimney‑pieces, funeral-monuments, tea‑cups, sun‑dials etc...much of it was exported to France. (10)
The 1802 Feuing Plan reveals ground plans of long rectangular or L‑shaped buildings crowded by the quay‑side, some of which are known to be warehouses, others can assumed to have served that role. There is a post‑1802 pencilled rectangle probably indicating another storehouse; subsequent conversion to or replacement by housing may disguise others. Today, four warehouse survive (11) forming a most remarkable group ‑ perhaps the most remarkable group ‑ of 18th‑century harbourside storehouses in Scotland. The salmon house (Fig 3, feu no 83) has gone, superseded in 1834 by a new building east of the old harbour overlooking Aird Bay. Another in the group is 10 Shorehead (Fig 3, feu no.5) dated 1726, a handsome domestic looking L‑plan range abutting the cliff backing the harbour area and at right angles to the Corf House. This probably combined the role of superior merchant housing with commercial/storage facilities.
From its description, proportions and elegant arrangement of fenestration, the granary assumed to be by John Adam is the long, narrow building sited at an angle between those bearing the feu nos 2,3,5 (Fig.3). The length of 81'6” x 21'0” (24.7m x 6.4m) could only be accommodated on the prime quayside site if angled, this angle aligning the front elevation to the main eastern approach along Shorehead. The site now slopes markedly, giving the impression of a running level to the base of the building. This slope, however, is largely caused by the raising and re‑surfacing of the quayside, masking the door cills at the upper (left) end of the building. One and two steps respectively to the extreme right hand doorways suggest that a shallow slope had to be accommodated by the builders. Between these doorways a large rock, probably original to the foreshore, has been built into the foundation.
Though now called Lord Findlater's Corf House, the association with the salmon is industry obscure. Salmon were salted and packed in barrels until the turn of the 19th century, and these may have been stored in the lower part of the building pending export (12). It would have been practicable to roll barrels into the ground floor storage space and equally practicable to roll them out again to waiting boats. The ventilated upper floors reached from the rear and by internal staircase would have been awkward, more suitable for sacks of grain and other more portable commodities.
These vaulted ground floor stores are built against higher ground at the back and have no light other that that provided when the doors are open. Interestingly the vaulting (not indicated on fig.1) is in brickwork, the bricks perhaps from Blackpots, a few miles east (13). Access to the well-lit upper floors is at the rear at first floor height, from the high ground behind the House. If some of this high ground was cut away 2 or 2½ feet from the Back Wall for drainage, it has been carefully infilled as a soak‑away and surfaced to facilitate water run‑off. (14)
The doorway and fenestration pattern of this granary sets it apart from its neighbours. The ground floor entrances are wide and low with long/short dressed freestone margins set in sneck harled rubble walling. The ground floor masonry in the front elevation differs slightly from the rest of the building, for which there is no known reason: one could suggest either re‑use of rubble excavated for foundations and the vaulted ground floor (15), a gap in the construction period or even re‑use of an earlier building. Re‑use seems unlikely, for there is no mention in Adam's letter quoted above. The entrances are closed with heavy wooden doors; two are now sympathetically arranged as recessed shop windows with the original doors converted as shutters.
The symmetrical fenestration, small square lights originally closed with louvred wooden shutters, is unusually attractive. Two windows light the first floor in the front elevation but at second and third floor level are grouped in threes. To the rear there is an off‑centre door (and a second later door, not marked on plan) giving access to the staircase and upper floors, well lit and ventilated with seven windows serving the second and third floors. Louvred shutters have been replaced throughout with single panes set in wooden frames. The regularity and elegance of the fenestration pattern set this building stylistically apart from its more vernacular neighbours. For example, the mid‑18th century building at the rear, now the Portsoy Marble Workshop (Fig 3, feu no 3) displays local building characteristics. Of these the wallhead chimney stack with deep moulded cope on the long west elevation, is pertinent: Such wallhead stacks are evident on the street elevations of contemporary housing in Portsoy and Banff (16). Hearths and chimneys were not uncommon in storehouses, indicating accommodation for owner or a resident custodian.
The 1802 Feuing Plan reveals the rectangular ground plans of two buildings without feuing numbers, that to which this paper is devoted and another at the rear. The absence of feuing reference indicates that these two were the property of Lord Seafield, for he would pay no feu duty to himself. That to the rear, now demolished, suggests a former warehouse: it appears the slightly wider and shorter of the two. Without evidence to the contrary, it seems safe to assume that Lord Findlater's Corf House, however misleading the current name, is the granary at Portsoy designed by John Adam in 1765.
Banff.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Seafield for permission to publish from the Seafield Papers held in the Scottish Record Office, SRO GD248/344 and RHP122889. Tom Burnett‑Stuart has been endlessly patient and helpful with my enquiries about his Lord Findlater's Corf House, where he has revived the 'Portsoy Marble' industry. His drawings of the building (c.1970) have been prepared for publication by Louise Crossman and Mike Jones.
References
1. John Adam, 1721‑1792, eldest son of William Adam and his wife Mary Robertson. John, like his father before him, carried out commissions for Lord Seafield. See Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600‑1840 (3rd ed.1996), pp.49‑51,62‑66.
2. Corf, Corff or Corfe House ‑ Salmon House (Scots). The building now accommodates a shop and pottery.
3. Lordship
4. SRO GD248/344
5. For girnals in Ross‑shire see Elizabeth Beaton 'Late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Girnals in Easter Ross and South‑East Sutherland' in (ed.) John R. Baldwin, Firthlands of Ross and Sutherland (1986), pp.133‑151.
6. New Statistical Account xiii (1842), p.179.
7. The harbour is said to date from 1692. See John R. Hume, The Industrial Archaeology of Scotland ii (1977), p.174; MacFarlane's Geographical Collections i (Scottish History Society, 1906), entry dated 1724; Ian Hustwick, Moray Firth, Ships &Trade during the Nineteenth Century (1994), p‑26.
8. New Statistical Account xiii (1842), p.191.
9. The Statistical Account (1790‑1, Witherington and Grant ed.1982, vol. xvi), p.147.
10. SRO RHP12889. Feuing Plan of Portsoy by Robert Johnston, Land Surveyor, 1802. Pencil markings abound on the plan.
11. Feu nos 3, 4, 54 and the unnumbered Corf House designated on Fig. 1.
12. Within living memory there was a salt house by the Old Harbour, possibly part of the old salmon house later utilised as a salt store for the herring fishing. Commercial salmon fishing with cruives (osier traps), stake nets or hand‑nets, was historically a considerable source of wealth in NE and northern Scotland, sometimes worked and fished commercially by the owners or let as fishings to specialist firms, such as Messrs Hogarth & Co, Aberdeen, who rented the Portsoy fishings in mid‑19th century (ex. info. Mr. Pirie, Portsoy). Like the herring in the 19th‑century, until about 1800 salmon were salted and packed in barrels for export; from the early 19thcentury the flesh was par‑boiled in brine and packed in ice stored in subterranean icehouses for export to urban markets. The rocky nature of the Doonie Hill/Old Harbour site makes it unlikely that an ice-house could be excavated under or close to this building. This and the need for a boiling house must account for the new salmon house built further east in 1834, with two semi‑subterranean ice-houses.
13. Blackpots Brick and Tile Works, Whitehills, about six miles east of Portsoy, were established commercially c.1785. However small scale brick making was probably carried on
earlier.
14. Pers. comm. Tom Burnett‑Stuart.
15. The suggestion that material from excavations was re‑used in the ground floor walling is from Tom Burnett‑Stuart, who also informs me that the majority of the stone used in the building came from a quarry at Boyne Bay, between Portsoy and Whitehills.
16. See nos. 5‑7 North High Street, Portsoy and nos.29‑31 High Street, Banff.
Ewing's Granary
This building on the north pier of the Old Harbour was last worked as a granary and grain store by Messrs Wm. Ewing, who had a large oatmeal mill on Burnside Street, now demolished. This building was restored by the late Tom Burnett-Stuart, who bequeathed it to the NE Scotland Preservation Trust.
Brebner's House (today Port House Café) and the 18th c. Smuggling Trade
In the 18th century, smuggling in Portsoy was widespread. Foremost among the smugglers was Alexander Brebner, who resided in this house. The practice arose because of Portsoy's safe harbour, and because of its accessibility to the surrounding country. Every merchant in Portsoy was involved in this illicit trade, and customers included the landed gentry, who had a sophisticated taste for the finer things in life, such as brandy, wines and silks.
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Smuggling thrived because high taxation made luxury items very expensive, and initially the authorities were ill equipped to bring the perpetrators to justice. Over time, however, the Revenue men became better organised and equipped, and the practice died out.
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Dr George Greig, in his 1843 History tells us that Brebner had several separate businesses and "owned no fewer than eight vessels wholly his property; also the house, now occupied as the 'Commercial Inn' with the adjoining feus and the houses surrounding that piece of ground in the lower Aird. He had besides, the estate of Bracken Hills about four miles from the town where he built a small mansion house and laid out an excellent garden, the remains of which are still to be seen. He also possessed the estate of Pitgaveney in Morayshire. He kept his carriage and it was long remarked that his daughter had the first umbrella to be seen in the streets of Portsoy. He also kept a lawyer in his house and gave him a handsome salary. He acted as a clerk and also managed the law processes in which he became involved, in consequence of his many infringements of the laws. His vessels generally delivered their cargoes at the small pier on the west side of the harbour (taken down in the recent improvements), which came to be called from thence 'Brebner's Pier', a name which it retained as long as it had existed. His house is reported to have had many concealments in it, several of which are said still to remain undiscovered, although most of them were found when the partitions were taken down; and certainly from the extent of the premises, it must have afforded vast accommodation for any purpose of the kind. An extensive concern such as this could not eventually be carried on with success. He became involved in tedious and expensive lawsuits and most of his ships were lost or captured by revenue officers. He was finally reduced to bankruptcy and died in prison."
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Alexander Brebner's demise is recorded in several old records, uncovered in research by Findlay Pirie, and annotated by him:
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SC2/9/114 24th. January 1775
Petition by John Innes, writer in Aberdeen, factor for Mr. Douglas of Fichle (Fechil). Apparently, James Stewart, messenger in Huntly by virtue of a Captain at the instance of Mr. Douglas apprehended Alexander Brebner in his dwelling house at Portsoy 'where he still remains prisoner and that it is necessary to have further assistance (sic) for transporting him to the prison at Banff, Mr. Brebner having attempted Deforcement last evening and his party being too few for that purpose.' He requested that more officers and their assistants be sent to James Stewart to take Alexander Brebner to the Tolbooth. John Innes produced his factory from Mr. Douglas and letters of horning upon which the Caption proceeded. The Sheriff agreed to supply the necessary officers.
1776 - ALEXANDER BREBNER IN FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES - Letters of Caption raised against Alexander Brebner by John Berengin Frodnam, merchant in Bergen, Norway, his factor being Alexander Keith W.S.
Note: - This is probably the reason why Alexander Brebner died in prison. The outcome of Letters of Caption was imprisonment of the debtor.
RS 29/8 folio 479 17th. April 1778
Recorded that Sergeant Robert Innes, son of James Innes, gave a precept of sasine to Alexander Bremner in Pitgaveney, merchant in Portsoy, of the lands of Cotts. Note: - Margaret Brown wife of Alexander Brebner had a liferent of a house in Pitgaveney
RS 29/8 folio 488 27th. October 1779
Recorded that when the lands of Cotts were sold to the Earl of Fife, Alexander Ogilvie of Culvie sold them with advice of Alexander Brebner. Note: - This would indicate that Alexander Brebner was alive and free on the 27th. October 1779.
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SRO CC1/8/14 - 20 July 1784
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EDICT OF EXECUTRY FOR ALEXANDER BREBNER, MERCHANT IN PORTSOY.
An Edict was placed on the church door of Fordyce following a hearing in the Commissary Court at Aberdeen on the 24 June 1784 at which Patrick Brown, merchant in Portsoy, was decerned executor creditor. There was also an enclosed note which recorded that Patrick Brown had raised the Edict, having a holograph receipt by Alexander Brebner for £5. It had been dated 1 November 1776.
Note: - It is difficult to suggest a date of death for Alexander Brebner, but at least it occurred before the 24th. June 1784.
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