Alexander Nimmo
The Engineer Who Shaped Dunmore East

Nimmo - The Man:

The name Alexander Nimmo is forever linked with the harbour and lighthouse at Dunmore East, a structure that stands as solid and enduring today as it did when first completed over two centuries ago. Yet the story of the man behind this remarkable feat of engineering is as compelling as the harbour itself.

Born in 1783 in the Scottish coastal town of Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire, Nimmo was the son of a watchmaker. He received his early education at the local grammar school before progressing to the Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh. There, he excelled not only in mathematics but also in the classical languages of Greek and Latin. By the age of nineteen, he was already supporting himself as a teacher, and in 1802 he was appointed to a position at Inverness Academy.

Nimmo’s reputation as a mathematician was exceptional, and he soon developed a passion for land surveying in his spare time. His talent did not go unnoticed. The great Scottish engineer Thomas Telford, a figure often described as the natural genius of his profession, recommended Nimmo for the exacting task of determining and fixing the boundaries of the Scottish counties. It was during this period that Nimmo’s abilities as a surveyor came fully to light, and his new occupation proved so stimulating that he eventually left teaching altogether.

His next appointment would change the course of his life and career. Nimmo was recruited as Surveyor to the Commissioners for Reclaiming the Bogs of Ireland, a role that required both technical skill and vision. He produced an extraordinary series of maps and detailed reports that remain impressive for their thoroughness. Always eager to broaden his knowledge, Nimmo undertook a tour of France, Holland, and Germany to study European public works. This dedication to self-improvement was characteristic of the man and would mark all his future projects.

On his return to Ireland, Nimmo was commissioned to carry out a survey of Waterford Harbour to assess whether a harbour could be built there for the important mail packets travelling to and from England. He identified Portcallin Cove as the ideal site, and around this sheltered inlet, the present-day Dunmore East Harbour was constructed.

This would become just one of the many harbours and piers—more than thirty in total—that Nimmo designed and built along the Irish coast. His influence extended well beyond Dunmore East. In 1822, he was appointed Engineer for the western districts of Ireland, where he also took on extensive land reclamation projects. He was responsible for major works such as the Wellesley Bridge and docks at Limerick and, further afield, designed the harbour at Porthcawl in South Wales. His expertise was sought by major infrastructure projects in Britain, including the Liverpool and Leeds Railway, the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Railway, and the Birkenhead and Chester Railway.

Nimmo’s technical knowledge and reputation were such that he served as consulting engineer to several significant bodies, among them the Duchy of Lancaster, the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company, and the St Helen’s and Runcorn Gap Railway.

What makes Nimmo’s achievements all the more remarkable is that, while deeply engaged in such demanding work, he continued to pursue a wide range of scholarly interests. He mastered several modern languages, studied astronomy, chemistry, and geology, and published papers on the relationship between geology and navigation with the Royal Irish Academy. He also contributed technical articles to Brewster’s Cyclopaedia, further cementing his reputation as one of the leading engineers and thinkers of his age.

Tragically, Alexander Nimmo’s life was cut short when he died in Dublin on January 29th, 1832, at the early age of forty-nine. But his legacy remains.

For the people of Dunmore East, Nimmo’s harbour is more than just a place of work or leisure. It is a monument to the brilliance and vision of a man whose talents shaped not only this village but countless communities along the Irish coastline. Solid, functional, and still admired for its design, the harbour serves as a perpetual reminder of Alexander Nimmo’s genius—a Scotsman who left an indelible mark on Dunmore East and on Ireland.

Nimmo’s Map of Dunmore – Preserving Lost Names and Forgotten Places:

In the early 19th century, the bustling packet services that carried mail and passengers between Ireland and England had already shifted their departure point from Cheekpoint to Passage. But by the early 1810’s, the Government of the day began to discuss the possibility of creating a dedicated harbour at Dunmore East for these important postal packets. At the time, all such vessels were powered by sail; the revolutionary use of steam was still years away from becoming a commercial reality.

When Dunmore East was first considered as a potential packet station, the very first step was to survey the small, natural cove that existed there. This crucial task was entrusted to Alexander Nimmo, one of the foremost harbour engineers of the day, a man already well-respected for his coastal works.

The results of the preliminary survey were promising enough for the Government to take the next step. Nimmo was commissioned to prepare a full map of the coastline around Dunmore, including a detailed plan showing the proposed piers and harbour works. In 1814, this map—entitled “Proposed Harbour for the Packets”—was completed. It was not only a beautiful piece of cartography but also a rare record of the local geography and place-names going back over 250 years.

The map reveals fascinating details. The sheltered cove that would later form the inner harbour of Dunmore East is clearly marked as Portcallin Cove. This name was not new; it appears too on William Doyle’s 1737 chart of Waterford Harbour, showing that Portcallin was a well-established local name. Yet how many in Dunmore today could identify it? With the construction of the harbour, the old name fell into disuse, and like so many pieces of local knowledge, it faded quietly from memory.

Nimmo’s 1814 map also contained other names that are no longer familiar. Portubera Cove is shown near the eastern end of the Park, while Portabeg—now known as Lady Cove—is placed towards the Park’s western end. Do any of these names resonate with the people of Dunmore today? Interestingly, the noted historian Canon Power, in his Place-Names of the Decies, does not list Portubera, Portabeg, or Portcallin, although he does reference Lady’s Cove, which we can assume corresponds to Portabeg.

It is important to remember that in 1814, the majority of the people living in and around Dunmore were Irish speakers. Their native tongue shaped the place-names of the area, and Nimmo, who had no Irish, relied on the local community to provide these names.

Those who know the village will be aware that the Island Road once led to an actual island. Nimmo’s map clearly shows the island lying separate from the mainland, with a 40ft chasm between the two. When he asked the locals for its name, they gave him the only one they knew: an Irish name. Unable to fully grasp the pronunciation, Nimmo rendered it as “Elan na Gloign” on his map.

For anyone with even a basic knowledge of Irish, the meaning is obvious: “Oileán na gCloch”, the Island of Stones—a fittingly descriptive name for the little rocky outcrop. In later years, the island became known as Kelly’s Island, a name that appears in a guidebook to Waterford published by Messrs. Harvey in 1873. Where this name originated is uncertain.

When Nimmo’s work was finished in Dunmore, the chasm that once separated the island from the mainland was spanned by a magnificent Gothic arch, admired by all who visited Dunmore thereafter, up until the moderisation of the harbour in the 1960's when it was decided to remove the archway and the island.

In preserving the names and landscape features of early 19th-century Dunmore, Alexander Nimmo’s map was far more than a technical record. It connected us with the lives, language, and knowledge of the people who lived here long before the harbour walls were built.