Lossiemouth

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Lossiemouth (Gaelic: Inbhir Losaidh), is a burgh in Moray, Scotland. Originally a port linked to Elgin, it was also an important and innovative fishing port. The present day town was formed over the past 250 years and consists of Stotfield, the first significant settlement, and lies to the north west of the town. Next community to be built was the Seatown - a small area between the river and the canal consisting of 52 houses, 51 of which are the historic fisher cottages. Following the decision to build a new harbour on the River Lossie, the 18th Century planned town on a grid system known as Lossiemouth was established. Branderburgh formed the final development during the 19th Century. This part of the town developed entirely as a result of the new harbour with its two basins.

Geography and geology

The town is positioned at 57°43N 03°16'W. It lies on the south coast of the Moray Firth, at the mouth of the River Lossie. The main part of the town is built on the Coulard Hill which consists of pale grey and yellow sandstones and with these is associated a cherty and calcareous band, commonly known as 'the cherty rock of Stotfield' . Along with the calcareous portion of the Stotfield rock there are nodular masses of flint also crystals of galena (lead ore) and iron pyrites.

The quarry on the east side of the town that produced the stone for the building of Branderburgh produced the largest variety and total numbers of fossil reptiles from the late Triassic Period to have been found in the UK. This was a total of eight species and 97 individuals; five of the species are unique to Lossiemouth, one of which is an early form of dinosaur. This quarry is ranked as Britain's most important fossil bearing location of this period.

Climate

Lossiemouth experiences a maritime temperate climate with generally cool summers and mild winters, and a relatively small annual temperature range. This is due to the water which has a much higher heat capacity than soil and rock. Seawater takes longer to warm up in summer, but once heated it retains its energy long after the surrounding land has cooled down, helping to moderate the climate. The British Isles has its prevailing wind from the southwest blowing over the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream, or more correctly, the North Alantic Drift ocean current. This allows the airmasses to pick up considerable amounts of moisture and, in Scotland, to depostit most of it on the western sides of the mountain ranges. The air that reaches the east coast is considerably drier which accounts for Lossiemouth's relatively low rainfall pattern.

Climate Table

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Mean daily maximum temperature (°C)	6	6	8	11	13	17	18	18	16	13	8	7	12
Mean daily minimum temperature (°C)	0	-1	1	3	6	8	10	10	8	6	2	1	4.5
Mean total rainfall (mm)	53	38	46	36	46	48	56	71	58	56	61	53	622
Mean number of rain days	17	13	16	14	14	13	13	15	16	16	16	16	179

History

Roman to Medieval

Although the Romans never conquered the peoples of the North of Scotland, they made several journeys to the Moray Firth coast. A substantial fort has been discovered near Cawdor, Nairnshire and a suspected marching camp at Wester Alves, Moray. Their ships circumnavigated the British Isles and they even produced primitive maps.

The Greco/Roman astronomer and geographer, Ptolemy, describes the mouth of the River Lossie as ostium Loxa Fluvius in his document which translates as "Albion Island of Britannia".  Settlement in this area has a long history. St Gervadius, a celtic hermit inhabited a cave overlooking the entrance to the sea loch, Loch Spynie. In his time, the River Lossie entered the loch further to the south. The rocky promontory is recorded in the ancient charters as Holyman's Head and it is said that Gervadius (St Gerardine as he became known in later times) would walk around the headland with a lantern to warn ships away from the dangerous rocks. Even today the Halliman Skerries retain the reference to St Gervadius. He died in 934 A.D. and his cave became a place of pilgrimage right up to the 16th Century. The cave was eventually quarried out.

The settlement at the river mouth is significant particularly in its relationship with the Royal Burgh of Elgin. An argument between the Bishop of Moray and the Earl of Moray was documented in 1383 regarding the ‘ownership’ of the port of ‘Losey’. This document mentions that Losey was commonly known to fall within the limits of the episcopal estates. The Bishop’s description of the port suggests that it was well downstream from his fishing station at Spynie. It seems likely, therefore to look upon Losey as not merely a fishing station but as a trading port that the Elgin Burgesses used as a counterbalance to the Royal Burgh of Forres's trading port of Findhorn. The dispute with the Earl of Moray went further. That same year of 1383, the Earl wrote to the burgesses offering them the use of his port at Kingston with no charges and was most likely an attempt to get back at The Bishop. The port and fishery was mentioned again in 1551.

The loch and the river became separated c.1600. A succession of storms built banks of sand and boulders that eventually closed off the sea entrance. To avoid flooding it is documented that, in 1609, Bishop Alexander Douglas took steps to exclude the River Lossie from the loch.

Modern Lossiemouth has its origins in five separate communities that in time grew into one. These were Stotfield, Kinneddar, Seatown, Lossiemouth and Branderburgh; the most ancient of these are Stotfield and Kinneddar.

Stotfield

The early maps, some dating back to the early 16th century, clearly show Stotfield (some maps, name the settlement as Stotfold or Stodfauld). The name Stotfold means in Old English, 'horse fold'. The fact that the name is a form of English and not derived from Pictish or Gaelic names suggests that incomers settled the area. King David I introduced settlers from other parts of the kingdom as a way of reducing the powers of the lords who had ruled large territories as independent provinces. Indeed, King David put down a rebellion by the Mormaer of Moray in 1130 and it is possible that Stotfield dated from shortly after this event. The English speaking inhabitants of the Lothians would most likely to have been the chosen settlers. It is notable that the tribe inhabiting the Lothians were Angles (part of the Kingdom of Northumbria).

In the Middle Ages, Stotfield was primarily a farm hamlet with small scale fishing being carried out. The fishing gradually became more important and the population specialised into farm workers and fishermen. Subsistence was hard but at least it was relatively easy, in this case, for farm and sea food to be bartered.

Stotfield fishing disaster

See main article at Stotfield fishing disaster

The Stotfield fishing disaster struck on Christmas Day 1806. The severity of this tragedy had a monumental effect upon the Stotfield community when every single able bodied male in the village perished in a huge storm. The folk memory of it is still retained among the fishermen of Lossiemouth.

Kinneddar

Nearby is Kinneddar which has now also been absorbed into the town. Early references to the area refer to it as Kenedor. An early Christian settlement dating to the 10th Century has been attributed to it. St Gervadius (Gerardine) may have been part of this community establishing his cell in the cave to the northeast.

However maps dating from the early 1500's clearly show this farming community as King Edward. It is unlikely, though, that this community took its name from King Edward I of England, The Hammer of the Scots, although Edward travelled twice to this area to demonstrate his grip over the country. He is known to have stayed in Elgin for four days in late July 1296 and it was during this sojourn into Scotland that he removed the Stone of Scone (Stone of Destiny) from Scone Palace and had it placed in a wooden chair at Westminster Abbey. He again stayed in Elgin for two days in September 1303 and then camped at Kinloss Abbey from the 13th of September till the 4th of October.

A succession of old maps show this ferm toun’s name changing over the centuries from King Edward to Kinneddar. The most likely explanation is that the early cartographers took the local pronunciation of Kinneddar as King Edward and recorded it as such. Kinneddar village was still sizeable in the early 19th century but dwindled away with the building of the new Lossiemouth, just to the east.

Seatown

The present Seatown was established at the end of the 17th Century when the old port at Spynie became landlocked. A succession of storms had built up large shingle banks to block the outlet of Loch Spynie to the sea. The merchants of Elgin decided that a new harbour that could berth larger trading vessels at the river mouth was required. The fishermen didn't use the new pier however but continued to sail their boats up to the beach at the Seatown. Seatown is called The Toonie by its inhabitants and sometimes referred to as the Dogwall. This was a reference to dog-skins that were dried here before being turned into floats for nets.

Lossiemouth

In 1685, the Elgin burgh council called upon a German engineer, Peter Brauss, to look at the viability of providing a harbour at the mouth of the Lossie; he decided that a harbour could be established. The first efforts at the beginning of the 18th Century looked to have failed but by 1764, the new jetty had been built at a cost of £1200.

At the time that the new river mouth harbour was being constructed, so too was a more planned development laid out in streets running parallel and right angles to each other. An open square with a cross separated the first settlement from the new. The fishers occupied the houses at the Seatown and the builders, craftsmen and merchants in the new Lossiemouth.

Branderburgh

By the early 1800s, the river harbour was busy but its long-term future was unsustainable and meant that a new solution was sought. In 1834, a Stotfield and Lossiemouth Harbour Company was formed to look into building a new harbour at Stotfield Point. That same year, The Inverness Courier carried the following:

"A paragraph is quoted from an Elgin paper under the heading "unexampled economy worthy of imitation." The two senior bailies of the burgh went on behalf of the town to Lossiemouth to meet the gentlemen appointed to stake off the ground for a proposed new harbour. The worthy Magistrates walked the whole distance, five miles out and five miles home, and only spent one shilling! This expenditure consisted of sixpence for whisky and the other sixpence to the waiter."

The construction of the new harbour was carried out between 1837 and 1839 but initially in a relatively small form. The beginning of the building process was marked by a ceremony and reported in the Inverness Courier as follows,

"The ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the inner basin of the new harbour at Stotfield Point, Lossiemouth, took place on the 15th inst [June]. The stone was laid by Lieut. Colonel James Brander of Pitgaveny, the proprietor of the site, with the assistance of the Trinity Lodge of Freemasons, and in presence of the Chairman and shareholders of the Harbour Company, and representatives of the burgh of Elgin."

This was the beginning of the final phase of building that was to become Branderburgh. However, by 1852 when the railway line from Elgin was opened, the basin had been enlarged further and deepened to 16 feet at spring tides. This encouraged many fishing families from up and down the coast to move to the town. The harbour as well as having a large herring fleet by now, also shared the available space with trading ships. This prompted the now renamed Elgin and Lossiemouth Harbour Company to build a new second basin at a cost of £18,000. This basin was intended solely for fishing boats and opened in 1860.

The Morayshire Railway was officially opened at ceremonies in Elgin and Lossie on 10 August 1852, the steam engines having been delivered to Lossie by sea. It was the first railway north of Aberdeen and initially travelled only the 5½ miles between Lossie and Elgin but later extended south to Craigellachie. The Lossie – Elgin section had three stops – the Rifle Range Halt, Greens of Drainie and Linksfield. The Great North of Scotland Railway took over the working of the line in 1863 and became very important to the economy of both Lossie and Moray.

Branderburgh, with its characteristic wide streets, continued to push its boundaries westward and by the early 1900s finally joined with Stotfield. A substantial amount of sandstone was quarried from the east side of the town to accommodate this rapid house building project. When Lossiemouth and Branderburgh became a police burgh in 1890, the town became mainly known as Lossiemouth, or more commonly – Lossie. Over time, the fleet developed and changed from sailboats, then to steam drifters and finally to motor engined seine net boats.

Fishing Boats

Main article at Scottish east coast fishery

The boats used at Stotfield, Seatown and finally Branderburgh were the same as those found across the entire Scottish east coast fishery. Chronologically, these were the two masted luggers, the Skaffies,Fifies and Zulus; then the powered Steam Drifters and Seine Netters.

• The Skaffie appeared at the beginning of the 19th Century. These boats were initially small so that they could be easily beached but later versions were heavier when large harbours became prevalent. Their stems were rounded and had raked sterns.
• The Fifie was the predominant fishing boat on the east coast from the 1850s until the mid 1880s. The Fifies main features were the vertical stem and stern. Fifies built from 1860 onwards were all decked and from 1870s onwards the bigger boats were built with carvel planking, i.e. the planks were laid edge to edge instead of the overlapping clinker style of previous boats. Some boats were built up to about 70 feet in length and were very fast.
• The Zulu took its name from the Zulu war that was raging in South Africa at the time. Lossiemouth fisherman William 'Dad' Campbell was the first to introduce this form of fishing boat. His boat, the Nonsuch, had the characteristic vertical stem and steeply raking stern. The Zulu Boats rapidly became very popular in Lossiemouth and then along the whole of the east coast. Because these boats were ultimately very big and fast, they could reach the fishing grounds quickly and return with the catch equally fast.
• The Steam Drifters, so called because just like the Fifies and Zulus, they used drift nets. They were large boats, usually 80-90 feet in length with a beam of around 20 feet. Steam drifters had many advantages. They were usually about 20ft longer than the sailing vessels so they could carry more nets and catch more fish. This was important because the market was growing quickly at the beginning of the 20th century. They could travel faster and further and with greater freedom from weather, wind and tide. Because less time was spent travelling to and from the fishing grounds, more time could be spent fishing. However they did have disadvantages. They were expensive to build and run and as the herring fishery declined they became too expensive to operate.
• The Seine Netters initially were converted Fifies and Zulus. From 1906, petrol and paraffin engines began to be installed, initially for auxiliary power. However, as more powerful engines became available, sails (apart from the mizzen sail) were dispensed with. Danish seine net boats were landing huge quantities of plaice and other white fish at English east coast ports. Lossiemouth fishermen noted this and a few decided to use the seine net. It was obvious that this would be successful, but they were still hampered by the design and cost of the majority steam boats. John Campbell, nephew of William Campbell who designed the first Zulu boat, saw that a new design was needed to accommodate the large amounts of white fish that could be caught. His boat, the Marigold, did very well and over a short period the entire fleet (the first in Scotland) converted to the seine net.

Education

Primary

• St Gerardine’s Primary School
• Hythehill Primary School

Secondary

• Lossiemouth High School is located in the south west by the playing fields. Adjacent to the school is the swimming pool and community centre with a playschool. Lossie High serves the Burghsea area: Lossiemouth, Hopeman, Burghead, Cummingston and Duffus including rural areas. The feeder primaries are Hythehill, St.Gerardines, Hopeman and Burghead. There are over 700 pupils separated into four houses; Covesea, Kinnedar, Pitgaveny and Spynie.

Culture and leisure

• Lossiemouth Fisheries and Community Museum , Pitgaveny Quay
• Lossiemouth Marina, Pitgaveny Quay
• Library, Town Hall Lane
• Warehouse Theatre, Nr Pitgaveny Quay
• Lossiemouth Folk Club
• Swimming pool, adjacent to Lossiemouth High School
• Moray Golf Club, Stotfield Road

Religion

Protestant

Church of Scotland

• St Gerardine High, Drainie Parish church, St Gerardines Road
• St James’ Church, Prospect Terrace

United Free Church of Scotland

• United Free Church, St Gerardines Road

Baptist

• Lossiemouth Baptist Church, King Street

Brethren

• Gospel Hall, James Street

Scottish Episcopal

• St Margaret’s Church, Stotfield Road

Roman Catholic

• St Columba's church, Union Street

Sport

The town's main football club is Lossiemouth F.C.[link], and play in the Scot-Ads Highland League. The club play their home games at Grant Park, but have a history of finishing down the bottom end of the league. It has, though, won several trophies in recent seasons, including the Highland League Cup and several North of Scotland Cups. The town's junior football club is Lossiemouth United. RAF Lossiemouth also has a junior football club. In addition, the station has a rugby union and a cricket club that play in their respective North of Scotland leagues.

Politics

Scottish and United Kingdom parliaments

Lossiemouth is in the Moray constituency which elects a member to the Scottish Parliament at Hollyrood, Edinburgh and also a member to the Parliament of Great Britain and Northern Ireland at Westminster, London. Both of these seats are held by the Scottish Nationalist Party and are repreented by Richard Lochhead and Angus Robertson respectively.

Local Government

The town has two seats on the Moray Council. These are Lossiemouth East, represented by Tom Boswell (Independent) and Lossiemouth West (Scottish National Party)

Economy

Lossiemouth is heavily dependent on its RAF station for its employment of civilians. RAF Lossiemouth along with its neighbour RAF Kinloss contribute around £100 million (including civilian expenditure) to the Moray economy annually and 21 per cent of all employment in the area is connected to the bases. Fishing, a once important industry, contributes very little to the overall economy but some engineering businesses once associated with fishing still exist. A sizeable proportion of the working population commute to Elgin daily.

Transport

Three roads converge on the town. The A941 connects to Elgin, while the B9103 joins the A96 (main Inverness to Aberdeen route) and the B9040 which connects to Hopeman and Burghead.

The nearest Railway station is at Elgin and offers services to both Inverness and Aberdeen which in turn provide services to the rest of the UK.

Similarly, Inverness and Aberdeen airports offer a wide range of destinations.

Language

The Scots Language is in decline in the north of Scotland but there are still remnants of the language in everyday speech e.g. “ Yi canna sing but can yi fissle?” which translates as “you can’t sing but can you whistle?” In Scots, especially the Doric version, ‘wh’ is always replaced by ‘f’ – “far yi gan?” is “where are you going” to which a typical reply might be “Foo y’askin?” which means “why are you asking?”

Twin town

• Lossiemouth's twin is Hersbruck in Bavaria, Germany.

Notable Lossie-ites

• James Ramsay MacDonald First British Labour Prime Minister (1866 - 1937)
• Malcolm John MacDonald Labour MP, Minister, diplomat and author (1901 - 1981)
• Sergeant Alexander Edwards, VC, Cooper and soldier (1885 - 1918)
• Gordon Campbell, Baron Campbell of Croy, MC PC DL Soldier, diplomat, Conservative MP, Cabinet Minister and Peer (1921 - 2005)
• Stewart Imlach Professional Footballer, Internationalist (1932 - 2001)
• David West, RSW Watercolour artist, gold prospector, sailor (1868 - 1936)
• John Garden Baptist minister, Australian politician and founder member of Australian Communist Party (1882 - 1968)
• George Fraser Leading hybridizer of rhododendrons in British Columbia, Canada
• Sir Alex Smith Former Head of Advanced Research, Rolls-Royce (1922 - )
• Peter Kerr Jazz musician, farmer, record producer and author

Gallery

External links

• [Census data]
• Grid reference
• [Map of Lossiemouth]
• [Lossiefowk (Local website and forum)]

 

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