Harbour news - April 2024

Tuesday, 02 April 2024

Harbour news  - April 2024

Perhaps a month early with this but the reason will become obvious.  The month May is a significant one in the history of Cromarty Harbour, for on 17th May 1784, ‘An Act for the better preferving and maintaining the Piers and Harbour of Cromarty in North Britain’ came into being. June is also another highlight month, as on 16th June 1834, a revised Act with much the same title as before, but replacing preferving with preserving and dropping North Britain, received Royal Assent. 
Despite a couple of technical updates, the provisions within the 1834 Act still governs much of how we operate today. Moving forward and doing the maths, 2034 will then become significant year; the harbour will be 250 or 200 years old?  There are ten years to plan a party!

Firstly though, operational matters, the new information and safety board has replaced the previous dilapidated one.   

Three of the pontoon fingers will be back in the water in two weeks, the other two are being held back on the grass to effect repairs caused by storms Antoni and Betty coinciding with especially high tides during August last year.  The damage led to a review of aspects of their design which stretched our engineering prowess, however we are hopeful that the redesign and repairs will make them more resilient, the replacement parts are in production and will be delivered in late April.

The harbour will be full again this year as has become the norm.

Turning to the East Pier repair and renovation; whilst we have been highly successful in accumulating over £100k to match a commitment from Historic Environment Scotland, there remains a small funding gap to bridge and now the clock is ticking as some grant funding offers may expire.  We are grateful to those that have helped us accumulate such an impressive total and work continues to secure the necessary funds for the project to move forward.

Our newly redesigned and advert free, harbour website acknowledges past and current supporters. Fundraising to support the ongoing repairs and renovation is a continuous process and our revised website now gives dedicated space to Friends of Cromarty Harbour to support their efforts to raise funding.  Merchandise sales continue through the website and in some local shops; sorry the jigsaws are out-of-print.

Back to the harbour’s 250th anniversary. Friends of Cromarty Harbour has launched an opportunity for supporters to secure a ‘Harbour Angel’ share of a cask of whisky that will be bottled in 2034 to coincide with harbour’s 250th birthday.  A 200 litre rum cask was filled with GlenWyvis spirit on Monday 1st April 2024.  Harbour Angel shares are available from today and will be limited to 200 shares of spirit.  Please see the Friends of Cromarty Harbour webpage for details or scan the QR code below.  Each purchase through gift aid gives an additional donation to the charity. This is our big fundraiser for 2024, please support if you can.