Arbroath on Foot – the Abbey, the Harbour and the Cliffs
A day on foot, from Arbroath station and back.
The route
Arbroath, the largest town in Angus, is known for two things.
One is a ruined abbey of red sandstone, from which a letter was sent to the Pope in 1320. The other is the smokie, haddock hot-smoked over a hardwood fire in the lanes behind the harbour. The town is about 20 minutes by train from Dundee, and the day is walked from its station. The morning is the town: the Abbey, the Signal Tower Museum, once the Bell Rock Lighthouse's shore station, and a smokie hot from the barrel at the harbour. The afternoon climbs onto the red cliffs, past arches, blowholes and a sea stack. The path drops into Carlingheugh Bay and runs on to Auchmithie, the fishing village where the smokie is said to have begun. A bus brings you back. It's about 6 miles on foot, with steps down to the bay and back up.
The day
Arbroath
The day starts at Arbroath station and ends at a bus stop in Auchmithie, with the town behind you by early afternoon. The morning is close-packed, three stops within a mile of each other. After that the walking opens out: the path leaves the last houses for red cliffs, a bay of pebbles and a village of one street above the sea.
Arbroath Abbey
An attraction
From the station it's a 10-minute walk up to Arbroath Abbey; the Port Kitchen on Keptie Street, by the station, opens at 10am for a coffee first. William the Lion founded the abbey in 1178 in memory of Thomas Becket, and was buried before its high altar. In April 1320 a letter to Pope John XXII, likely drafted by Abbot Bernard, was sent from here: the Declaration of Arbroath. Outside, look for the twin towers of the west front and the Round O, a window once lit to guide ships home.
15 min on foot
Signal Tower Museum
An attraction
Back down the High Street, a 15-minute walk, the Signal Tower Museum stands on Ladyloan at the west end of the harbour. It was built in 1813 as the shore station for the Bell Rock Lighthouse, out on its reef in the North Sea, and served the light until 1955. The museum tells the lighthouse's story, and the keepers' cottages tell the story of the town's fishing. It's free, and at noon from Friday to Monday, April to October, staff take visitors up 70 steps and a ladder to the tower room.
5 min on foot
Arbroath Harbour
An attraction
A 5-minute walk east round the harbour, mostly a marina now but still landing shellfish, leads to Ladybridge Street and the Fit o' the Toon, Scots for the foot of the town. In the late 1800s the town council offered land here to fisher families from Auchmithie, who brought the smokie with them: haddock salted, tied in pairs and hot-smoked over a hardwood fire. Cel's Fresh Fish sells them warm from the barrel. Eat one and carry another: Auchmithie has nowhere to eat. Leave by about 1.45pm to make the 4.41pm bus from Auchmithie (4.55pm on Sundays).
45 min on foot
Arbroath Cliffs
A walk
The afternoon is the cliffs: a 45-minute walk, along the front by King's Drive to Victoria Park and then up a tarmac path, brings you to the Deil's Heid. The sea has cut the red sandstone here into caves, blowholes and arches. First comes the Needle E'e, a natural arch, then the deep cleft of Dickmont's Den, and then the Deil's Heid itself, a stack standing off the cliff. This is the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Seaton Cliffs reserve, with seabirds on the cliffs from May to July and dolphins often seen offshore.
15 min on foot
Carlingheugh Bay
Carlingheugh Bay, the Flairs to Arbroath folk, is about 15 minutes' walk on along the cliffs. The Scottish Wildlife Trust has kept the northern section of the old clifftop path closed since 2021. The diversion runs through the bay, a pebbly beach under red cliffs, with steps down to it and back up to the clifftop. The Three Sisters rocks stand at its south end, the remains of an old boathouse at its head. If the tide is up over the beach, turn back by the way you came.
45 min on foot
Auchmithie and the Ethie Cliffs
A walk
Auchmithie is about 45 minutes' walk on along the clifftop: one street above cliffs 120 feet high, with a pebble beach and an old harbour, begun in 1889, below. The smokie is said to have begun here; the story goes that a store caught fire and cooked the haddock in its barrels. Walter Scott wrote the village into The Antiquary. It has nowhere to eat now. Buses 35 and 140 run back to Arbroath bus station, by the train station; from Monday to Saturday the last before 6pm leaves at 4.41pm.
If it rains
The town half of the day holds up in rain: the Abbey's visitor centre and the Signal Tower Museum are indoors, and the Port Kitchen, by the station, serves a hot lunch. The cliff path turns slippery in the wet, its steps above all, and is no place to be in strong wind, so on a wild day keep to the town. From Thursday to Sunday, Hospitalfield, on the west side of the town, opens its Garden Café, walled garden and fernery from 10am to 4pm, and from April to October a tour of the house at 11am.
Make it a weekend
More days out in Angus.
Photographs by Les Read, Dorota W and John Newman via Google