In the days when the Firth of Forth had an abundance of fish, they were caught on  lines each with over 1000 hooks and baited with mussels. In the wee small hours of the morning, it was quite normal to hear the voices of Newhaven’s fisher lassies softly singing as they made their way to where the mussel beds were to harvest them and thereafter bait the lines for their fathers and brothers.

One of those places was called, appropriately enough, Mussels Cape Rocks, standing beside the Western Harbour Lighthouse at the lock gates, look to the east and you will notice a low circular edifice offshore rocky outcrop. Leith Docks has now largely enveloped this prominence in concrete but its location can still be identified. Standing beside the Western Harbour Lighthouse at the lock gates, look to the east and you will notice a low circular edifice. This is one of only three Martello Towers that exist in Scotland, the other two being in Orkney.

The Martello Tower, or Tally Toor as it is commonly called in Leith and Newhaven, was built in 1809 as part of the coastal defences at the time of the Napoleonic War. Being tidal, the location provided additional security, as the tide went out. The Tally Toor, together with Leith Fort, which was constructed in 1780, meant invasion of Leith and the nearby city of Edinburgh was a hazardous undertaking by sea. This fear was not unfounded following the marauding attack of the Firth of Forth in 1779 by American privateers led by the Scottish buccaneer John Paul Jones.

The work on the Tally Toor was undertaken by Irish navvies as evidenced by the Celtic symbols carved into the stonework. The walls are 2m thick and the structure was 11m high above the rocks on which it was built. The raised entrance of the tower made access difficult. The internal space was circular in design and split across two floors with the stair built within the thickest part of the wall.

The first floor had a domed roof which contained the living quarters. It was divided by a partition of light timber to form a large barrack room with two windows and a fireplace and a small segment-shaped room for the officer in command. Sleeping accommodation consisted of nine folding beds attached to the wall in the barrack room.

The ground floor was divided by stone walls into four barrel vaulted compartments and entered by a stair from the upper floor. Live ammunition was stored in one of these ventilated compartments.

The Leith tower had a gun platform of 9.75 metres (32 feet) in diameter. Despite costing £17,000 at the time (roughly equivalent to £5 million today and about the same cost as the Sir Walter Scott Monument built some 30 years later), the tower was left unoccupied and defenceless until 1858 when there was rising concern about an expanding French Navy and the perceived need to defend British ports.

The roof gun emplacement was altered by Royal Engineers to form a trefoil shape and three thirty-two pounder guns were sent from the Woolwich Arsenal. Modifications to the living quarters were also made at the same time. It was manned by artillerymen from Leith Fort until around 1870 when it was abandoned until the Second World War.

During the War, an anti-aircraft battery was installed to defend the Forth Bridge from bombing raids. It is hard to believe that before and. for a short time, after the war it was a popular place for family picnics.

Now all that remains to be seen is the top of the tower with the bulk of the edifice submerged in concrete in what is now reclaimed land.

The public is no longer allowed access although the structure was designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland in 1962.

Here are a few pictures to be going on with…

Gordon can be contacted at newhavenheritage@gmail.com