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History Of The Harbour

Written by Cara Davidson.

Built by the Duke of Buccleuch in 1838, Granton Harbour has a rich and surprisingly varied past. Currently home to the Royal Forth and Forth Corinthian Yacht Clubs, the emphasis today is on recreation, although the Harbour remains an operational Port. In fact the harbour owes its origins to the historical shift from sail to steam, and the need for deep water berthing following the increase in heavy shipping on the Forth.

The site of the much needed new harbour was hotly contested, with Granton eventually winning out over proposed schemes at Trinity and Leith Docks. A ‘Granton Bill’ was introduced to parliament in 1836, paving the way for the construction of Middle Pier, which opened on Queen Victoria's Coronation Day. (The terraced houses running from Granton Square, along Lower Granton Road, were built to house the construction workers).

Middle pier was built almost entirely from ‘white’ sandstone sourced locally from the Granton Quarry, located just west of today’s Wester Breakwater. The quarry was also used to source stone for other local buildings of that era, including the Granton Hotel (now the Armed Forces building), on Granton Square. Perhaps the quarry’s most notable product was the statue of Nelson above Nelson’s column in London.

The world’s first roll-on / roll-off train ferry began operating out of the harbour in 1849. This ferried passengers to Burtisland, extending the reach of the East Coast Main Line directly across the Firth of Forth for the first time. The ferry eventually fell into dis-use when the Forth Bridge opened in 1890.

The harbour continued to serve as an industrial port on into the 20th Century, and fishing boats would also have been a familiar sight here from the mid 1880s onwards. With the advent of World War I however, the harbour was turned over to naval purposes. World War II saw the Lochinvar Royal Navy Base located nearby, lending it’s name to what was formerly Middle Pier Road, now rechristened ‘Lochinvar Drive’.

“Hesperus” Crossway also takes its name locally from Hesperus I and II, two Northern Lighthouse Board Vessels which operated out the harbour at different times.

Commercial activity at the harbour resumed after the second world war, and Granton continued to thrive as a centre of industrial and commercial activity. In the 1950s, Granton became a major port in the Esparto Grass trade, handling around a third of all imports to the UK. The grass was used to produce good quality paper, feeding Edinburgh’s print and publishing works.

With the subsequent decline in traditional industry, Granton’s fortunes soon hit a downward spiral. Commercial traffic finally ceased in 1974, and use of the harbour as a fishing port ended soon after, in 1978. Approximately 30,000 people were living in the Granton area in 1971; by 1991 this had fallen to little over 18,000.

Over the years, Granton harbour has come full circle. It is now enjoying a new lease of life as a centre for recreational sailing, and more recently as the site of new residential development. In the future it is expected the harbour will play a prominent role in the wider regeneration of Edinburgh’s historic waterfront.

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