In 1818, the first stone of the Fraserburgh Harbour south pier was placed and the board of the Commissioners was assembled.
And now, the bicentenary of the harbour as seen today and the formation of the Fraserburgh Harbour Commissioners has been marked by a dinner, a show of historic photographs and the unveiling of a commemorative plaque.
Guests at the event were invited to look at the history of the port and discuss future developments.
The plaque, which will be hung in the harbour, was unveiled by Honourable Kate Nicolson.
She said: “The original harbour was built to capture the Baltic trade and the rest, as they say, is history.
“I have been watching, since my retirement from the board, the progress of the Harbour Commissioners and I wish them all the best for the future.”
The black granite plaque has engraved in gold lettering: “This was laid to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the laying of the first stone of the south pier in September 1818.”
The harbour itself dates back to 1542 when Alexander Fraser constructed a convenient port, opposite his land, after receiving a charter for the whole fishing from King James V.
Since then, the harbour has undergone many changes with the construction of more piers with most of the developments happening in the 19th century.
Board convenor Michael Murray said: “There has been a port since the 1500s, but this is a celebration of the board and the port as it stands today.
“We’ve just finished a £12 million development of the harbour and are going to use this as a focal point to move to the future.
“We’ve put together a master plan which will lead us through the next five to 20 years for that project, but we start it now and future boards will finish it off.
“This is my first year as convener and this marks the starting point of something special.
“In the next year, we will be making an announcement of another project for the harbour which is huge.”
At the event, held in Fraserburgh Leisure Centre, guests were treated to a display of historic images which are kept by the board.
One was a print of the original stone which had gone missing for many years before resurfacing.
Jill Smith, clerk to the board, said: “I have been looking into the history and it has been really interesting.
“We dug these out to show it’s good to celebrate the past and look to the future.
“The board have done a lot of hard work over the years and it’s great to be able to celebrate that.”
