Open Brick Building on Slopes above Harbour

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 22 May 2021

I wasn't sure whether to refer to this as a building or a structure, as I'm not at all sure of its original purpose. A huge archway takes up almost all of its front side and the arch's apex is close to the height of the ceiling, which I reckon must be about 20 feet up. The interior measures around 15 feet by 7 feet, and the whole structure is made from brick. There are a few small square holes, of varying sizes, in the interior walls, which look like they once had a purpose. Strangely, nothing appears on the most detailed mapping from today, and it is also neither depicted nor mentioned on the usually infallible 1:2500 scale OS maps surveyed and printed of this area in the 1960s. The only thing that might tie in with it is the mention of a summer house in roughly the same spot on the first 1850s 6-inch OS map. It would have been a big oversight though, for it not to have been transferred to any large-scale maps subsequently, if this actually is that same summer house. It could well have been a well-situated hideaway on the grounds of the nearby Broomhall, a grand sandstone house built in the late 1700s just slightly NorthEast of this spot. I wish I had taken more pictures, or had a more photographic memory, as I can't remember too well quite how it was situated within the landscape. I am positive that both the back wall and the right hand wall were built into the steep land behind though. It certainly had the feeling of an alcove. The two enormous leafy stalks in the middle are formed from ridiculously long foliage hanging down from above.

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