The salt pans in Cockenzie were established by
George Seton, 3rd Earl of Winton around 1630, possibly slightly later. When the salt pans were first established there were twelve. By 1790 there were ten, and by 1840 six pans remaining. It is not known at what point the pan house, the building that contained the salt pans, stopped being used for salt production, but it is known that it was rebuilt at some point in the
Victorian period as
tenement flats. The tenements were destroyed in the early 1940s, though outer walls remained intact. The salt pans would have been fueled by coal transported to Cockenzie via the
Tranent to Cockenzie Waggonway. No excavation took place during 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Excavation resumed in 2021 and revealed the remains of the ash pits, which were a later addition to the pan house built within the original walls. The pits were filled with ash deposits and made of clay brick. They are approximately one metre deep and reach the bedrock. An iron bar was found across one of the pits, which would have supported a grate or grill upon which the coal would have been burnt. The second bar that would have gone across the other ash pit is missing, though the slots in the brick that it would have rested in remain. Large, rectangular pans of brine would have sat above these grates to boil the brine and produce salt. As the coal burned, the ashes would have fallen through the grate and down into the ash pits, where it would later be raked out. ==Tourism==