Heritage groups link to build replica salt pan in Brora
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Nearly 200 years after the last salt was made in Brora, a new scale-replica 18th century salt pan has been built in the grounds of Brora Heritage Centre. The project is an exciting venture for Clyne Heritage Society and a highly skilled team of salt-makers and builders from the Waggonway 1722 Project based in Cockenzie (East Lothian) who came to Brora recently and built the salt pan.
The Waggonway team constructed a third scale experimental salt pan in the grounds of Cockenzie House in 2017, where they hold salt-making days during which visitors and local groups engaged in live demonstrations, producing several pounds of clear, white, flaky sea salt.
Waggonway chairman Ed Bethune said: “It was fantastic to team up with Clyne Heritage Society for this exciting collaboration. It’s been three years since we revived traditional salt making in Cockenzie, and we were thrilled when our counterparts in Brora contacted us with a proposal to construct another pan. The process of making salt in the traditional method used in Scotland is a fantastic educational opportunity and an engaging spectacle.
“Joint ventures such as this, between heritage groups with common goals, are a fantastic way to bring the history of our respective areas to a wider audience. This partnership is the next big step in the revival of the long-forgotten Scottish salt industry and the salt pan itself will be a fantastic asset to Brora, as our own one has been for Cockenzie and Port Seton.”
Brora and Cockenzie were both former centres for the Scottish coal and salt industries in the 18th century and their history of ownership and management are remarkably similar. The younger Jurassic coal at Brora was more suited to industrial furnaces than domestic fires.
Project co-ordinator and Clyne Heritage Society member Jacquie Aitken said: “It’s taken over a year to organise and we’re delighted that the work has now been completed, taking all the necessary measures to ensure the safety of our team. The idea for the salt pan came from the results of excavations carried out between 2004 and 2012, with our partners The SCAPE Trust, uncovering the remains of eroding buildings for making and storing salt on the back shore, at Brora. In 2010, The society received a national award for community research and excavation work from the Association of Industrial Archaeology and the new salt pan is a fitting legacy and will be a great asset for local groups and visitors to the heritage centre.”
The new salt pan started its journey at MacDuff Shipyards (Banff) where the rectangular steel pan was skilfully welded together. On arrival at Brora, the builders ceremonially placed it on top of the furnace structure, which heats up the pan filled with sea water to start the evaporation process and salt production.
One of the builders, Gareth Jones said “This was an opportunity for us to visit Brora for ourselves, having known about the parallels with Cockenzie and heard so much about the society’s efforts. Building the pan in such a limited timescale was a challenge, but the group had lined everything up for us and kept us going with coffee and lunches over the weekend. The structure is similar to our own operational pan, but we have incorporated several improvements, taking into account what we have learned over the past few years.”
The two groups plan to come together again to demonstrate traditional salt-making methods to local volunteers next year when Covid restrictions allow.
