Dunbar Harbour – Castle Ruins, the Battery and a Seafood Lunch
A few hours.
The route
Dunbar's two old harbours sit in a jumble of red rock, with the broken tower of its castle above the fishing boats and the Battery, a 1781 gun fort on its own island, at the harbour mouth.
Wander round it all, then have lunch a few steps away at the Creel, the small restaurant on Lamer Street.
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, 8 miles away. Sleeps 4.
Book the Creel, Dunbar
Book lunch at the Creel in Dunbar on 01368 650400, for a Tuesday to Saturday between noon and 2pm: it shuts on Sundays and Mondays and is often full, especially at the end of the week.
The day
Dunbar
An hour round Dunbar's harbours, its castle ruins and the old gun fort at the mouth, and a seafood lunch on the harbour's own street.
About three hoursAbout 0.5 miles on foot
Dunbar Battery
An attraction
Follow Victoria Street down from the west end of the High Street to the harbours, where there's parking round the main harbour; check the signs there for any charge, and expect less space during events. The ruined tower of Dunbar Castle stands on the red rocks above the boats, where Black Agnes held out against an English siege for months in 1338. Cross the harbour bridge, an uneven old drawbridge, to the Battery, built on Lamer Island in 1781 to guard the town from privateers. Walk in through its arched gateway to find an old cannon still pointing out to sea, a small amphitheatre and mirrored steel Sea Cubes, with the Bass Rock on the horizon. It's free and open at almost any time, but may shut in extreme weather. Look out for seals in the harbour.
3 min on foot
The Creel, Dunbar
Lunch
Lunch is 3 minutes' walk back over the bridge at the Creel, in a stone building on Lamer Street, a small, simple room with old beams and white cloths. Its cooking is built round East Lothian's sea and farms: think scallops, lobster and crab, and fish with mussels. It serves lunch from noon to 2pm, Tuesday to Saturday, and it's often full, so book on 01368 650400. If it's shut or full, the Volunteer Arms, a minute up Victoria Street, opens every day from noon and welcomes dogs; ring 01368 862278 to check its kitchen.
If it rains
Everything but lunch is out in the weather. In rain, see the castle and the Battery from the harbour in a few minutes and go straight to the Creel; in a gale or a big sea, keep away from the harbour walls altogether.
The Creel, Dunbar, a restaurant in Dunbar.
Photograph by Tim Moore via Google