|
The Old Harbour is now an attractive amenity, and there is an active sailing club. Portsoy boasts a highly picturesque open-air swimming pool amid the rocks to the west of the town.
Straddling two streams that run into a great rocky bay between Redhythe Head and Cowhythe Head, in a district which has been called a 'geological museum", Portsoy was made a burgh of barony in 1550,
but the old harbour was the creation of Patrick Ogilvie, Lord Boyne, who developed the port from the export of 'Portsoy marble' obtained from a vein of serpentine still exposed near the new swimming
pool. In 1700 he persuaded the Scots Parliament to assist this by prohibiting the import of foreign marble and the trade flourished mightily for the six years till the Treaty of Union altered the
situation. There was a considerable export to France, and Louis XIV
used the serpentine from Portsoy for two of the chimneypieces of the Palace of Versailles.
Craftsmen are still working Portsoy serpentine on a very modest scale, and paperweights, chessmen, and
other small objects of this most attractive stone can still be obtained in local shops.
In 1825 the Earl of Seafield built at his own expense a new harbour alongside the old one. Its siting and construction were faulty, and it was wrecked by storms. It was rebuilt to cope with the
herring boom in the 19th cent., and it still survives today, but is now used only by pleasure craft and small lobster-fishing boats. Portsoy is within easy reach of some very striking coastal scenery
and good beaches. About 2 m. W. is the picturesque fishing village of Sandend, locally pronounced 'Saan-eyn". |
