Harbour wall repairs:

Firbush Harbour

Loch Tay, Perthshire · 2026

Our role: Principal contractor
Client: University of Edinburgh
Architect and contract administrator: CLWG Architects
Value: Under £0.5m
Programme: May to September 2026
Scope: Breach rebuild, void consolidation, underwater repointing, crack stitching, retaining wall, York stone walkway

Firbush Outdoor Centre sits on the south shore of Loch Tay, where two rubble-stone breakwaters and a low retaining wall form a sheltered harbour for the University of Edinburgh's sailing and outdoor activities. After a breach opened in the east wall, the University appointed us as principal contractor, working with CLWG Architects, to carry out urgent structural repairs and a wider programme of masonry maintenance across the harbour.

Working from a floating pontoon on Loch Tay

Firbush Harbour Wall Repairs, Firbush Outdoor Centre, Loch Tay, Perthshire — photograph 1

Firbush Harbour Wall Repairs, Firbush Outdoor Centre, Loch Tay, Perthshire — photograph 2

Firbush Harbour Wall Repairs, Firbush Outdoor Centre, Loch Tay, Perthshire — photograph 3

Firbush Harbour Wall Repairs, Firbush Outdoor Centre, Loch Tay, Perthshire — photograph 4

Firbush Harbour Wall Repairs, Firbush Outdoor Centre, Loch Tay, Perthshire — photograph 5

Firbush Harbour Wall Repairs, Firbush Outdoor Centre, Loch Tay, Perthshire — photograph 6

The challenge

Much of the work lay at or below the waterline, with voids washed out along the base of the walls and a section of the east wall above the breach at risk of collapse. Repairs had to be made in and beside deep water, using mortars that would set and survive in permanent immersion. The centre, its lodges and the harbour stayed open and busy throughout, on a single-track lochside road, so every stage was planned around public access, water levels and the weather.

Our solution

We propped the unstable section, carefully took down the masonry above the breach and set it aside for reuse, then rebuilt the core with stainless steel reinforcement resin-fixed into the wall and a structural concrete infill before relaying around 4.2 metres of the upper wall in its own salvaged stone. A stainless steel chain and plate restraint now ties the east wall together. Along the waterline, washed-out voids were built up in selected natural stone with pinnings and full back-bedding, and open joints were raked out by hand and repointed in a fast-setting natural cement mortar specified for immersed masonry, then protected under damp hessian while it cured. Cracks in the north wall were stitched with helical bars, the low retaining wall was rebuilt in short sections on new footings with its original stone as facing, and the harbour walkway was relaid in York stone on a lime bed.