The name 'Hound Point' derives from a local legend concerning the lord of nearby Barnbougle Castle, currently Lord Rosebery.
The legend states that one of the first lords set off to fight in the Crusades, leaving his beloved hunting hound dog behind.
At the moment the man was killed in battle, the hound dog began howling uncontrollably, eventually dying of its grief.
Ever since the howling ghost of the hound dog is said to appear on the Point whenever the present lord is about to die.
The Legend of Hound Point
Long, long, had the mail-clad Templar fought,
Beneath the blood-red cross,
Where many a knight was slain in fight,
With none to mourn his loss.
At length through the keep, by the waters deep,
There thrilled a bugle sound--
A death-wail pass’d on the midnight blast,
Where Sir Roger met the hound.
And a darksome Paynim form appear’d,
Winding that solemn wail--
In the ebbing tide, a hound by his side,
But neither shallop nor sail.
And ever when Barnbougle’s Lords
Are parting this scene below,
Come hound and ghost to that haunted coast,
And death-notes winding slow.
Constructed in 1974 Hound Point is now a marine terminal off the rocky headland of Hound Point
Opened in 1975, Hound Point was owned and operated by Ineos as an oil-export terminal for North Sea oil and is the largest such facility in Scotland.
The terminal now consists of three concrete and steel island structures with associated berthing and mooring dolphins, all situated to the East of the Forth Railway Bridge.
There are two berths and a Vapour Recovery Platform.
Max size: Draught 20.7m (neaps) 21.6m (springs), approx 350,000DWT.
Crude oil from the Forties pipeline undergoes stabilisation and gas processing and treatment at the Kinneil Terminal at Grangemouth before being pumped to a tank farm at Dalmeny on the southern shore of the Firth.
The oil is then pumped to the Hound Point terminal where it is loaded onto tankers.