Salt Pan

On our way to our walk we called in at Cockenzie House to browse the gift shop and craft fair. From the cafe we could watch the activities around this fire and cloud of steam in the rear garden, so went down to investigate.

It is a demonstration of salt-making, whereby sea water is poured into the pan, heated by a wood stove, and the water boiled off - but in a very selective way. As the salt content increases, egg white is added to flocculate the impurities with its long-chain protein (in olden times bull's blood would have served this purpose) and the scum skimmed off. In the cooler corners of the pan other minerals in the solution, such as magnesium sulphate, accumulate and are collected for use elsewhere. More sea water is added to the pan and the process continued until a certain level of salinity is reached, at about 1" depth, and the process stopped. As it cools the salt begins to crystallise out and is collected and dried. We tasted some of the previous batch, finding it had a very concentrated and distinctive flavour.

This was a local industry at Prestonpans, where the salt, along with locally mined coal, were important exports, for which the Tranent to Cockenzie Waggonway - Scotland's first railway - was built, firstly of wood and later of iron, to convey the products to the harbour at Cockenzie. A heritage group based at the museum seeks to promote knowledge and interest in the waggonway and the industries that it served. 

Replete with Christmas gifts, coffee and local knowledge, we continued to North Berwick for our walk, and had also completed a round of charity shops before the rain began.