Visitors to the Jetty in Whiting Bay may wonder what the concrete structure, just visible, protruding from the beach on the left hand side is…

Step back 44 years or so when some luminary on the Improvements Committee proposed the building of a sea water paddling pool adjacent to the Jetty. Plans were drawn up, the site cleared and a young Dougie Graham (assisted by the Bunyan Boys from Corrie) enlisted to effect the construction. Over the summer, tides permitting, construction went ahead with much barrowing of concrete alternating with sentry duty, waiting for the tide to submerge the pool, to prevent the local vandals inscribing their monikers, in perpetuity, in the wet concrete. The only problem was that the wee bu**ers would hide till the first pint called to Dougie from the Whiting Bay Hotel, before they would get to work. (Honest Guv, they must have snorkled down to inscribe their initials!)

On completion, and without ceremony, the valves were closed and the pool filled with water on the next tide. Everything seemed idyllic. The kids were happy, the parents were happy, in fact everyone was happy. It was just that everyone seemed to be oblivious to the fact that there was a perfectly good and even larger paddling pool further down the jetty!

However… come the first spring tide with a strong easterly breeze and the pool filled with a soup of kelp, bladderwrack and algae. Given a few warm days to fuel a good going ferment and the old ladies in the street were swooning in the reek. Old Donald (Skech) was diverted from litter picking to excavate the pool (causing an even greater reek)but Nature will have her way and within a couple of weeks we were back at square one.  Even enlisting a council Drott could not hold back the tide.

By the end of the Autumn the Council had abdicated responsibility and the pool was allowed to fill with beach until it was only partially visible. Almost as invisible as the bright spark who had the idea in the first place.

Over the years less and less has remained visible. However with rising sea levels and coastal erosion the pool may come into its own again. It would make a first class foundation for sea defences…

Anon