Salt panning returns to Highland village after 200 years
Harvested from the sea and produced using coal mined from the small pocket of Jurassic rock, Brora’s ‘white gold’ salt was a prized commodity which told its own story of Highland history.
This Sutherland community is preparing to turn back the clock, to recreate the traditional art of making sea salt for the first time in two centuries.
From next month a team of volunteer ‘salters’ will be trained in the traditional methods by skilled salt makers from the 1722 Waggonway Project based at Cockenzie in East Lothian.
They will use a replica of an 18th century salt pan built by MACDUFF SHIPYARDS LIMITED in Buckie and constructed at Brora Heritage Centre.
While the sea salt will initially be produced on a small scale for demonstrations for local groups, visitors and schoolchildren, there are hopes that it might eventually expand and revive the area’s reputation as a salt-making centre.
