Broughty Castle
The castle and the developing burgh
The Broughty Ferry coastline
Broughty Ferry grew up as a small hamlet of fisher folk on the shores of the River Tay, near the castle. Fishing was always central to the community's lifestyle, and by the 1880s there were 180 fishermen and around 80 fishing boats working here. The boats would have been pulled up onto the shingle beach in front of cottages built along the shoreline. The harbour was built in 1846 by the Edinburgh and Northern Railway Company and provided a terminal for roll-on, roll-off ferries, creating a rail link between Dundee and Edinburgh and further south.
The harbour, built in 1846 by the railway company
There are strong links between Broughty Ferry, is castle and the sea. Evidence of the links between the people of Broughty Ferry and the sea can be seen in local graveyards, for example. There is a fishermen's burial ground between Church Street and Fisher Street, and many of the gravestones there bear symbols of ships and anchors, symbols of fishing and of life at sea. In the graveyard of St Aidan's parish church you can see a number of gravestones bearing symbols of anchors (see below). One of these is a gravestone in memory of Mary Ann Thomson , who died in 1899. The stone also records that a member of the Thomson family drowned in the Tay in 1881, a reminder of the dangers of living and working beside, and on, the river.
The anchor symbol on Mary Ann Thomson's memorial |
The stone in memory of James Dorward, shipmaster in Broughty Ferry, who died in 1849 |
In the Castle Museum's galleries, you can explore how the burgh of Broughty Ferry developed and expanded. Many of the objects in the display cases bear an image of Broughty Castle, which became a symbol or emblem for the local community.
You can also learn about the kinds of activities that took place in the cottages and on the shoreline near the castle in the past. For example, the shoreline was the place where the important work of baiting the fishing lines and mending the fishing nets took place.
