Category: Berwickshire
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‘The White Hoose’
If you’re ever find yourself travelling along the East Coast Main Railway Line, look out for this salmon fishermen’s bothy. It’s perched about a mile or so north of the English-Scottish border, atop a prominent level spur, overlooking the rocky shore at Lamberton Skerrs. You’ll only catch a glimpse of it. It was a bothy…
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The coastline near Cove
The Berwickshire coastline is a rugged and untamed stretch of land that is a favourite destination of ours for a refreshing break during a northbound journey, offering ample opportunities for exercise and fresh air. These breathtaking views along the coast are the result of millions of years of sedimentary rock formation during the Palaeozoic geological…
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Cove Harbour
A quaint harbour just down the coast from Torness Nuclear Power Station. In the summer of 1984, about 200,000 tons of rock from the construction of the power station were dumped about three-quarters of mile offshore from Cove to create an artificial reef about a half-mile long and 200 yd. wide, at the time the…
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Cuddy Trail — Tods Loup
On 12 March 1840, the Fife Herald carried an advertisement: LAMBERTON COLLIERY TO LET. To be Let, for such a number of years as may be agreed upon, with entry thereto at Whitsunday 1840, THE COAL FIELD situated on the Farm of LAMBERTON, in the parish of Mordington, and county of Berwick, as formerly occupied…
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Siccar Point and The Father of Geology
In 1788, 62 year old Dr. James Hutton, physician, merchant, local farmer and self-taught geologist set out by boat for Siccar Point. He was accompanied by his friends, Sir James Hall and John Playfair. Hutton was in search of an ‘unconformity‘ which he thought would prove his revolutionary theory that the earth was millions of…
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Seacliff Harbour with Tantallon Castle in the background
Reputedly the smallest harbour in Britain, although it is hard to imagine anything smaller. It was built in 1890 by Andrew Laidlay, the laird of Seacliff, the grandest baronial mansion built on the cliff overlooking the bay. The family fortune came from the manufacture of indigo in Calcutta. Laidlay was killed in 1907 when Seacliff…
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St Helen’s Church, Aldcambus
On the road again. Heading north of the border, and stopped for a break. Spotted “St Helen’s Church (rems of)” in Gothic font on the map so an excuse for a run along the north Berwickshire coast. The church is considered to be early 12th-century. Dedicated to St. Helen, who was the mother of the…
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Fast Castle
This is a part of the country I just didn’t know existed. We’re usually dashing past on the A1. But it’s a fascinating coastline, rugged, unfrequented with few paths. Fast Castle looked interesting, perched on an inaccessible promontory called Castle Knowe. It was built in the 14th-century, destroyed and rebuilt in the 16th but in…