Very Old Saltcoats Swimming Pool

[TheTeslarian]

Still can't find good Scottish evaporation pool pics (though there were some a few months ago) but here are some international ones for comparison:

http://www.travelphoto.net/photos/engli ... db_i31.jpg

http://www.photoglobe.info/gozo/imgs/go ... 01_015.jpg

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previe ... 186143.JPG

Y'know for years I puzzled at this topic. My dad spent his summers swimming in the pools and of course introduced them as such when I was wee but the more I studied the history and structures, the less convinced I was that this was their original purpose. Looking at these international pics, especially the last one, I am quite convinced that the saltcoats swimming pools are the original evaporation pools for the production of salt.

Note the level of the tide in the international pics. The tide flooding the pools is absolutely essential for the production of salt.

[dreamer]

From those photos linked above, I'd say there was an extremely good chance that the former bathing pool was indeed a former salt pan before that. Interesting find.

[TheTeslarian]

Hi Jim,

Who ever said that should look at the Saltcoats coat of arms which has a salt pan building in the top right hand corner.

Buildings were needed for the process of salt.

Wee Boney oan his high horse.

Sorry I had to spear your stallion with my lance.

[dardanelles11]

do salt pans have a shallow end and a deep end

[gnyaff]

Hi Teslarian,

Whilst I agree with you that water will evaporate in cold climates, even a goldfish bowl will lose quite an amount over a week in a normal Scottish residence. However, I don't concur that the Saltcoats Pools were used for the production of salt. They are far too deep to be productive of salt in commercial quantities, Saltcoats produced huge amounts of salt which was distributed far and wide. In pools I have seen in other parts of the world most salt is removed from the bottom after the pool after has been filled many times and evaporated. This leaves quite a considerable amount of salt which can be scraped off with a shovel. There is a fine example of this in Ibizia, there they collect the salt by the ton, the pools are very shallow and cover quite a few acres, they are also very small in size and shallow in depth like the ones in your picture from Malta. The small Saltcoats pool in question, I think is too deep and also tidal, taking in to consideration any rainfall which would dissolve any salt which was left there and put it back into solution. It would never have time to evaporate completely given its depth. As for the old swimming pool, there must surely be some old Saltcoats people still alive who would remember its opening. Again, this is far too deep for any complete evaporation to take place, when I was a boy I used to dive off the deep diving board and It was 10 foot deep at that end.

On aother note, the horse is recovering quite well from the lance wound and is in a field near the house recuperating. Since I don't have the horse I've just gone out and bought a new motorbike.

How is the book coming along? I'm dying to get my hands on a copy.

Wee Boney

[Hughie]

Here's the large evaporative salt works very close to us here in Australia. As you can see the pools are laid out so they are not subjected to incoming tides twice daily.

Initially I believe they are settling pools - the top water is drained off before the evaporation process starts.

Those piles of salt are massive:
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=-38.164424&lo ... =0&m=a&v=2

[hahaya2004]

Just to add to the confusion , here's a wee quote from a booklet on Saltcoats:
" From earliest times there seems to have been a small community of cottars dwelling in small huts on the seashore, earning a living by fishing or manufacturing salt............
The salt was made in small pots or boilers, and the coal needed to fire the boilers was collected from outcrops of rocks or from the surface of the shore." (Burgh of Saltcoats A Brief History).

There was already a bathing station with a small pool in 1910, so I doubt whether there's anyone still around who remembers. (The tidal pool was constructed in 1933).
Irene

[dreamer]

Where do you get the 1933 date from Irene? The pool marked on the 1910 OS map looks exactly like the one thats still there now.

[hahaya2004]

It was in the same booklet, Dreamer. Here's the quote:
"People had bathed at the site of the old saltpans since the 1880's. However, in 1932 the Town Council......decided to reconstruct the bathing pond and on June 10th 1933 the new Bathing Pond was declared open. The old bathing pond had been popular for nearly 50 years up to that time, but even before this people had bathed in and around the harbour."
This is from the booklet "Old Saltcoats":
"Saltcoats Bathing Station, pictured in 1910,...........developed in stages, starting off as a small pool.......and was reconstructed by the Burgh as a large tidal pool in 1933."

[dreamer]

Ah, think you've got your pools confused, the one mentioned in Old Saltcoats is the large pool in Winton Circus, the pool we've been talking about here is the small pool round the back of Saltcoats Harbour.

[hahaya2004]

Sorry, Dreamer. I was referring to Wee Boney's post about the bathing pond with the diving board..... I should have added a quote.

[TheTeslarian]

Working on the second one now Wee Boney! It is half complete. Leaving the submission of it for a bit though since I am in deeply embroiled in German bureaucracy, which is driving us all completely up the wall and oot the ceiling.

Sorry for the off topic stuff folks. And sorry about your horse. Hope it recovers quickly and nicks your bike.

AJ