Tantallon Castle – Clifftop Walls and Lunch by the Bass Rock
A few hours.
The route
Tantallon is a great red curtain wall of a castle, built by the Douglas earls in the 1300s across a cliff headland, with the Bass Rock out at sea beyond it.
Give it an hour or so, then drive 5 minutes west along the coast road for lunch at Drift, a clifftop café looking out to the same rock. It's an easy morning for anyone who loves a ruin with a view.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
Book the Tantallon Castle ticket on Historic Environment Scotland's website, where it costs less than at the door (£7.50 for an adult at the time of writing), and arrive by 3.15pm from October to March, the last entry.
Book a table inside at Drift on its website if you're going at a weekend or in the school holidays: it opens every day from 9.30am to 4pm.
The day
Tantallon
A wander along the walls high above the sea, and lunch on the clifftop with the Bass Rock in front of you.
About three hours
Tantallon Castle
An attraction
Tantallon Castle stands just off the A198. Park in the small car park beside the visitor centre, which has two accessible spaces, or in the larger one about 400 metres back. From the ticket office it's 250 metres on a gravel and grass path, over two timber bridges, to the castle, whose red sandstone wall runs right across the headland with sheer cliffs on the other three sides. Climb what you can for the view of the Bass Rock, and hold small hands near the edge. Tickets cost less online, £7.50 for an adult at the time of writing. From October to March it's open every day from 10am to 4pm, last entry 3.15pm, and it's shut on 24 and 26 December and 1 and 2 January. The east tower and the doocot, or dovecote, are closed for conservation work. Dogs are welcome on a lead.
5 min by car
Drift
Lunch
Lunch is 5 minutes' drive west along the A198 at Drift, a café built from shipping containers on the clifftop above Canty Bay, looking straight out to the Bass Rock. It's open every day from 9.30am to 4pm for brunch, soup, sandwiches and cake. At weekends, book a table inside on its website. Dogs are welcome at the picnic tables outside, which have water and hooks for leads. If it's full, Steampunk Coffee on Kirk Ports in North Berwick opens every day from 9am to 5pm.
If it rains
Tantallon is a roofless ruin on an open cliff, so in heavy rain or a gale keep the visit short, or leave it for a drier day and go straight to Drift, where the tables inside look out to the Bass Rock.
Drift, a café in North Berwick.