Caithness, 1925 - Reisgill Burn

Caithness, 1925 - Reisgill Burn

ID: QZP40_CAITHNESS 1925-26_56001_013 DESCRIPTION: From a book of photographs of Caithness, compiled by Herbert Sinclair and published in the mid-1920s. It shows Reisgill Burn that runs down into the bay at Lybster Harbour. Lybster is a village on the east coast of Caithness. Once over 100 boats sailed in and out of the harbour. Lybster was the third largest herring port in Scotland after Wick and Fraserburgh. Herring was a delicacy on the Continent and was caught relatively easily off the Coast of Scotland - off the East Coast during winter and spring, off the North Coast of Scotland and Shetland during the summer months and, in the autumn, off the Coast of East Anglia. At this time, there were as many as 30,000 vessels involved in herring fishing the East Coast, not to mention others in the Irish Sea. As the century progressed, the numbers continued to grow until the Scottish fishing industry became the largest in Europe. Because herring was a fatty fish, it had to be cured as quickly as possible to prevent it rotting. At the peak of the Herring Boom in 1907, 2,500,000 barrels of fish (250,000 tons) were cured and exported, the main markets being Germany, Eastern Europe and Russia. In 1913 there were over 10,000 boats involved in the Scottish Herring Industry. PLACENAME: Lybster OLD COUNTY/PARISH: CAITHNESS CREATOR (AV): Herbert Sinclair DATE OF IMAGE: 1925 PERIOD: 1920s SOURCE: Highland Libraries COLLECTION: Caithness 1925 Asset ID: 31854 KEYWORDS: