Dysart & West Wemyss
June 28, 2021
28 Jun '21. My 130th Harbour Master and very unusually a harbour with its own Harbour Master's house ....now a popular cafe (photo 4).
Tiny drying Dysart and nearby West Wemyss typify the hidden jewels along the Fife coast where for hundreds of years Scottish sailors exported salt and then coal to The Low Countries. Dysart even has its own tunnel leading directly from the local coal pit face. But the story does not end there.
The boats would return with high value, but considerably lighter luxury goods such as jewellery, silk and glassware and they had to be provided with ballast for the journey - often bright red roofing pantiles. This is why all the photos we took sailing west show buildings with bright orange tiles - and in West Wemyss (photo 10) the architecture is more Mediterranean than the "dour grey" you find in so many Scottish towns.
Dysart port was first recorded in 1450 (so much earlier than the rest of the UK) and ships were built here from 1764. The harbour lay derelict from 1929 up until 1967 when the Dysart Sailing Club took out a 99 year lease with the council. I was lucky enough to meet the very friendly team who run the harbour - Martin Johncock the Commodore of the Club (photo 1 - right) and Dougie Hemsley, the HM, on the left. We enjoyed a whisky together as Good Dog dried out on their harbour wall on what they called their "deep berth"!
In this area the Fife coal seams go right out under the sea. It is difficult to imagine that for 100 years up to 1988 over 50 collieries operated along the coast and of course Maggie Thatcher is still blamed for their closures!
Today the harbour is a tourist honeypot, together with the pretty coastal path that runs east to West Wemyss. We could not have had a more friendly welcome - thank you Dougie and Martin.
Tiny drying Dysart and nearby West Wemyss typify the hidden jewels along the Fife coast where for hundreds of years Scottish sailors exported salt and then coal to The Low Countries. Dysart even has its own tunnel leading directly from the local coal pit face. But the story does not end there.
The boats would return with high value, but considerably lighter luxury goods such as jewellery, silk and glassware and they had to be provided with ballast for the journey - often bright red roofing pantiles. This is why all the photos we took sailing west show buildings with bright orange tiles - and in West Wemyss (photo 10) the architecture is more Mediterranean than the "dour grey" you find in so many Scottish towns.
Dysart port was first recorded in 1450 (so much earlier than the rest of the UK) and ships were built here from 1764. The harbour lay derelict from 1929 up until 1967 when the Dysart Sailing Club took out a 99 year lease with the council. I was lucky enough to meet the very friendly team who run the harbour - Martin Johncock the Commodore of the Club (photo 1 - right) and Dougie Hemsley, the HM, on the left. We enjoyed a whisky together as Good Dog dried out on their harbour wall on what they called their "deep berth"!
In this area the Fife coal seams go right out under the sea. It is difficult to imagine that for 100 years up to 1988 over 50 collieries operated along the coast and of course Maggie Thatcher is still blamed for their closures!
Today the harbour is a tourist honeypot, together with the pretty coastal path that runs east to West Wemyss. We could not have had a more friendly welcome - thank you Dougie and Martin.