Burghead

What would appear on the surface as an uninteresting little town/village with little to commend it has, in fact, an amazingly interesting history and has been the subject of archaeological study for generations. The town today, built on the promontory overlooking the harbour, is one of the multitude of projects undertaken by that giant of Civil Engineering, Thomas Telford; in fact once one becomes aware of it, his influence is seen throughout this region in many of the harbours developed during the Industrial Revolution (the Caledonian Canal was one of his towering achievements).

In this case the pity was that, like many Victorians, he was no sentimentalist and laid his town over the top of what was an important fortified structure started, it is believed, during the Bronze age and developed as the capital of the Northern Picts (who have a long Latin name given them by the Romans) during the days of early Christianity.

It is believed that some, now important, artefacts were incorporated in the structure of the harbour and the few remaining ones can be viewed in various museums around Scotland! A visit here must take in the visitor centre up behind the CG lookout to best understand the history of the area. The harbour didn't start out as shelter for fishing vessels (that came later) but as an import/export centre and this is evidenced by the large granary buildings around the harbour which have been turned into flats now. This was a town of great importance to the distilling trade supplying over thirty per cent of the malted barley used by the distilleries in Scotland and to that end much of the employment in the town was supplied by the malt houses.

Then, of course, the herring fishing took over the coast and it became another centre for the landing and processing fish. The railway came, and went with Beeching, but the harbour itself has continued to be mainly for fishing vessels, their catch being transported by road to the large markets on the East coast.

The harbour itself is well cared for, the pier sides are uncluttered and one doesn't have to negotiate ones way through a pile of creels and nets at the top of every ladder (though you'll be lucky to find a vacant ladder, especially at weekends!!). The result is that, although FV dominate the harbour, it doesn't have the heavy commercial atmosphere of somewhere like Buckie and it can be recommended as a stop over to yachties if tide and weather necessitate it.