Leckmelm Pier - Opportunity for Community Buy Out

Recently the Crown Estate who owns the Pier has expressed a wish that they may wish to sell the Pier to a suitable community group.  If anyone is interested in this please contact me and I will offer as much help as I can.

The pier at Port Blar Bog is a fine example of drystone construction.   Alexander Pirie had the pier built when he developed Leckmelm Estate in the Victorian era.   Other stone work also included many buildings that are still used today and excellent stone linings of the burns which are also well preserved.   The stone was mostly used in a natural state; not fashioned into shape for the task.

It's likely that the people who worked on the pier were the agricultural tenants that had been cleared from their rented land and offered rehousing and work on the estate.   The picture taken of the launch of a yacht at the slipway beside the pier gives some idea of the workforce and their families - all in their best clothes for the occasion.

Now the structure of the pier  is imminently threatened by the action of the waves and the deterioration of its internal timbers.   Its collapse would be sad for both historical reasons and also because of the loss of this facility to the local community - small boats are moored in the bay and launched from the slipway.

Therefore a group of local people has been brought together to form the Leckmelm Pier Club whose aim is to conserve and sympatetically restore the pier in order to preserve this asset for the comunity and safeguard the legacy left by the workers over a century ago.    An expert has provided an initial survey of the pier's condition and given an estimate of the possible cost of making it secure.   Sources of funding and of voluntary labour are being sought .

Let's hope the pier can be saved and the work of Victorian and modern day stoneworkers can be appreciated for the next century at least.