Looking to the east across Wardie Bay from where the Old Chain Pier once stood

Old Chain Pier

The Photo

This photo was taken at very low tide in September 2011. *** This view looks down the Firth of Forth towards the large harbour at Leith and the smaller harbour in front of it, to the right of the lighthouse, at Newhaven.

- The buildings in the centre of this photo are new apartments and a Health Centre, built on reclaimed land in Leith Western Harbour.

- The buildings on the right are at Newhaven. They are, left to right:

- Lighthouse at the harbour entrance

- Low fishmarket and restaurants, almost hidden from view by Newhaven harbour wall

- New apartments

- Chancelot Flour Mill, the large white building

- Church, the interior converted to a rock climbing centre.

*** LOW TIDES Here, on the Forth, where this photo was taken the difference in height between high tide and low tide can be anything from about 2 meters to 6 meters. When this photo was taken at about 10.30am on Sep 29, the height was 0.2m. The previous high tide had been 6.1m.

Old Chain Pier

This photo was taken from where the Old Chin Pier once stood in the eastern part of Wardie Bay.

The Old Chain Pier bar in Trinity Crescent, overlooking the Firth of Forth, was originally the Booking Office for steamers that sailed from the Old Chain Pier. This pier was built in 1821, about two decades before Granton Harbour. It was washed away in a storm in 1898.

The view in the painting at the bottom of this page looks to the east along the Firth of Forth to the Old Chain Pier. The pier can be see to have been supported on three sets of wooden posts, built up from the Firth of Forth.

Pier Supports

The remains of the bases of four of the old supports, about a foot high, can be seen in this photo:

Two can be fairly clearly seen in the open sand in the middle-distance. The other two are less distinct. They are in the foreground, left and centre-right.