Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 33 on 22/06/2007.

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The devil and the deep blue sea

Gavin D Smith explores Scotland’s long association with the sea

Humankind has been fishing in the waters off what is now Scotland since around 7,000BC.

In McArthur’s Cave near Oban remarkable evidence of early fishing has been found in a 5,000 year old excavated midden. This dates back as far as the Mesolithic period, and was found to contain limpet, winkle, whelks, mussel, oyster and scallop shells.

Such early fishing was undertaken on a subsistence basis, providing food for the fisherman and his family or immediate community, but by the medieval period Scottish herring and salmon were being exported to Europe, and herring fishing became one of the great success stories of the Scottish economy during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Writing in 1873, James Bertram declared in Harvest of the Sea that: “No country has, taken into account size and population, been more industrious in the seas than Scotland – the most productive fishery of the country having been that of herring.” Dutch, German and Flemish vessels frequently fished for herring off the Scottish coast from the mid-14th century onwards, but it was only during the second half of the 18th century that Scottish herring fishing really began to flourish. In 1766 there were 261 comparatively large herring ‘busses’ fishing out of the River Clyde, and on the east coast, three Caithness merchants fitted out two vessels in 1767 and fished the Moray Firth for herring. They achieved great success and ultimately ensured that Wick became the premier herring port in Europe.

In order to e.....

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By Gavin D. Smith

Section : Scotland's Heritage

Page number : 24