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History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications
from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network

Killantringan Cable Hut

At Lairds Bay (Port Kale), Killantringan, near Portpatrick, Scotland, is a somewhat derelict building, most recently a Coastal Interpretation Centre. In the 19th century it was the cable hut for the terminus of telegraph and telephone cables from Scotland to Ireland. An 1899 article gives this information on the building's history:

Previous to the purchase of the telephones by the State [in 1870], one hut was found to be sufficient for the accommodation of the two four-wire telegraph cables stretching from Donaghadee, and Whitehead in Belfast Lough, to Port Kail, the distances being twenty-three and a-half knots and twenty-five and a-half knots respectively. The laying of a four-wire telephone cable in 1893 rendered additional accommodation necessary, however, and this was furnished by the erection of a second hut, which has been joined to the first in a neat form, as shown in the accompanying illustration [see below].

Lairds Bay. Photograph courtesy of Jim Deans.
The twin peaks of the cable building roof can be seen in the distance


Cable landing sites: Whitehead and Donaghadee, Ireland,
and Lairds Bay, Killantringan (Portpatrick), Scotland

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Lairds Bay cable building.
Photograph courtesy of Jim Deans.

The huts in 1899

The remains of the cable.
Photograph courtesy of Derek Menzies

  © Copyright derek menzies and licensed for reuse
under this Creative Commons Licence.
Photographs source: Geograph

Another view of the cable building.
Photograph courtesy of Derek Menzies

Last revised: 18 September, 2018

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