Cove and Pease Dean – A Hidden Harbour and an Ancient Wood
About 2.8 miles on foot.
Cove is one of the Berwickshire coast's best surprises, a tiny stone harbour tucked under red cliffs that you can't see from the village above.
This walk pairs it with the clifftop path to Pease Bay and Pease Dean, a wooded valley of old trees, ferns and moss that runs down to the sea. It's about four and a half kilometres, with the harbour as a short extra on foot.
- Time
- About two hours: 4.5 km, or two and a half miles, from Cove to Pease Dean and back, an hour and a half on the council's figures, plus the short walk down to the harbour.
- The path
- A steep track down to the harbour, rough grassy clifftop paths with unguarded drops, and muddy woodland paths in the dean. Boots for all seasons but summer.
- Where to start
- The car park at the end of the road through Cove, above the harbour. The harbour itself is reached on foot.
- When to go
- All year in daylight, on a day without a high wind. The dean is muddy for most of the year. From November to January set off by 1pm.
- Dogs
- On a lead along the clifftop and near livestock. Keep to the paths in Pease Dean.
- Children
- The harbour and its beach are fine for children. Keep them close on the clifftop, where the drops are unguarded.
- Toilets
- None at Cove. Toilets and a shop at Pease Bay and in Cockburnspath.
- Before you set out
- Steep, unguarded drops along the clifftop between Cove and Pease Bay. The paths in Pease Dean are muddy for most of the year.
The walk
Park in the car park at the end of the road through Cove, the cluster of houses on the clifftop just outside Cockburnspath. There are no toilets or shop here: the nearest are at Pease Bay and in Cockburnspath. Start with the harbour, which you reach on foot down the track from the car park. It hides at the foot of the cliffs, a curve of sand, two stone piers and a pair of old houses out on the rocks. The present harbour dates from 1831, when the Hall family of Dunglass built it to ship coal, though boats had landed here for at least two centuries before.
A tunnel 55 metres long, cut through the rock in the 1750s and once lined with cellars for salmon and herring, leads to the beach beyond. With a hidden bay and tunnels made for storing things out of sight, Cove has long had a name for smuggling. Painters loved it too, and the Glasgow Boys kept an artists' colony here in the 1880s. From Cove the waymarked walk follows the clifftop east to Pease Bay and into Pease Dean, a Scottish Wildlife Trust reserve of ancient woodland where ferns, mosses and liverworts thrive in the damp shelter of the valley. Scottish Borders Council gives Cove to Pease Dean and back as two and a half miles, or 4.5 km, and an hour and a half.
The clifftop has steep, unguarded drops, so keep children close and dogs on a lead, and leave it for another day in a high wind. The paths in the dean are muddy for most of the year, so wear boots. From November to January, set off by 1pm.
If it rains
The clifftop is open to the weather and the dean's paths turn to mud. On a wet day keep to the harbour, where the cliffs give some shelter, and save the wood for a dry spell.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is Blue Cabin by the Sea in Cockburnspath. Sleeps 4.
For further reading, before you go.