Logan Fish Pond was created from a blow hole which had started to form some time during the Ice Age/Silurian times roughly 10,000 years ago.
In 1788,the then Laird,Colonel Alister MCDouall came upon the idea to create a fish larder for the big house(Logan House). The work,including the building of a cottage to house the Fish Keeper,took some 12 years and was completed in 1800 The work was all done manually to dig out the pond using pick axes and shovels and would have to stop twice daily due to the incoming tides.
There are no actual records of how it worked left but research shows that probably all the fish were caught at sea and brought in and stored until they were needed.The fish were kept in by a metal grill which was fitted to the front entrance to the cave where the tide would come in twice a day.This practice was continued until the turn of the century when refrigeration was introduced.
Low tides would almost cover the footpath,high tides would rise to approximately 5ft up the wall and on extreme days it could reach the top of the steps.The last time being in January 1995.The tide is now controlled by a valve which is manually operated.This was fitted at the end of the cave in 1995.A new valve and pipe work was put in place in May 2008 and the old one removed.
At the moment the pond is 8ft deep with a 22ft diameter and 48,000 gallons of water.The height from the top of the wall to the bottom is 35ft-48.
There are usually approximately 50 fish in the main pond mainly Cod,Pollack,Coalfish,Turbot,Plaice,Dab,Spurdog,Bull Huss,Wrasse,Gurnards,Conger Eels,Bream,Mullet,Nurse Hounds and other species.We do not keep our fish forever,they are returned to the sea every two years to mature and breed.Our main aim is show the public what beautiful native species we have in our waters and how we can protect them.We do not allow people to touch our fish and the fishes welfare is paramount.We have feeding sessions throughout the day but try to keep the fish as wild as possible so they do not become imprinted.
We re-open on February 28th 2009.
