Arbroath Harbour

Summary

A working east-coast Scottish fishing harbour — landing fish, smokie smokehouses, red sandstone quaysides, and the ruined Arbroath Abbey behind the harbour entrance.

About this location

Arbroath is a fishing town on the Angus coast, south of Montrose. The harbour is a commercial fishing harbour — boats land catches of white fish and crabs, and the fish is processed locally in the smokehouses that produce Arbroath smokies, a hot-smoked haddock protected by EU geographical indication (continued under UK law post-Brexit). The smokehouses — traditional pitched rel-lid kilns — are visible from the harbour and can be visited.

The harbour is enclosed by two stone piers in red sandstone — Arbroath’s characteristic local building material. The ruins of Arbroath Abbey (1178, where the Declaration of Arbroath was signed in 1320) are a short walk up the High Street from the harbour entrance.

For productions, Arbroath gives a compact Scottish east-coast fishing harbour with working fishing boats, a specific food-production tradition (the smokies), and a distinctive red sandstone character. The combination of working harbour, smokehouses, and medieval abbey gives a layered historical depth within a small area. Angus Council handles filming permits.