Sugar House

The sugar house was built opposite the harbour between 1765 and 1767. Sugar was refined there until the mid-1790s, although the buildings were still standing until 1972, having found a new use in the late 19th century as an oil and cake mill.

Sugar houses were built in England from 1612, becoming prevalent in Scotland from 1667, initially in Glasgow. Inextricably linked to the slave trade, it was for some time a very profitable enterprise. The east coast sugar houses in Leith and Dundee were in production later, from the 1750s[1].  Raw unrefined sugar was imported from the Caribbean, mostly from the islands of the West Indies. The sugar cane took 18 months to grow, requiring frequent attention by field slaves. The tall canes were then cut and carried to sugar mills where they were fed between rollers to squeeze out the sweet juice. The resulting juice was boiled in large coppers until it crystallised into raw sugar. The raw crystallised sugar was packed into hogsheads (large barrels) to be shipped over the Atlantic to sugar houses in towns or cities such as London, Bristol, Glasgow, Edinburgh – and here in Burntisland.  The sugar was further boiled, and filtered to remove impurities, then pressed into moulds, also yielding molasses which was mostly used in distilling rum. The refined crystallised sugar was sold in large cones or loaves from which the sugar was chipped off with “sugar nips” or tongs, or to be made into confectionery or cakes. Later the sugar was sold as lumps or the bagged granulated form we are familiar with today.