Arbroath – A Harbour, a Signal Tower and a Red Abbey
Arbroath grew up round the abbey that King William the Lion founded in 1178, and much of the old town was built from its stone.
The heritage trail is a loop of an hour and a half that begins and ends at the harbour. It takes in the Signal Tower, the fishers' quarter where the smokie is made, and the abbey's red ruin.
- Time
- An hour and a half.
- The path
- Pavements and a cobbled quay. There's a climb from Victoria Park up Boulzie Hill, with an easier way round by Hill Road.
- Where to start
- The council car park at Arbroath harbour, where the trail starts and ends.
- When to go
- All year: it's a town walk. In a gale off the sea the harbour and the Fit o' the Toon take the worst of it, and from November the light goes by late afternoon.
- Children
- Boats and creels at the harbour, and the tale of a circus crocodile that got loose in the Lordburn.
The walk
Start at the harbour, where there's a council car park. Creels, the fishermen's pots, are stacked along the quay, and the present harbour, now a marina, dates from 1877. Close by stands the Bell Rock Signal Tower, built in 1813 as the shore station for the lighthouse eleven and a half miles out to sea. It now houses the town's museum.
Beyond it is the Fit o' the Toon, the old fishers' quarter of outside stairs and stone-slated roofs. This is where haddock were hung over smoking pits to make the Arbroath smokie. The trail goes on to the gates of Victoria Park, then turns inland through the streets of the upper town to Arbroath Abbey. Only its south side stands to any height, with the great round window known as the Round O.
The way back is down the High Street and past the old mills on the Brothock Burn to the former lifeboat shed by the harbour. Allow an hour and a half.
If it rains
Pavements all the way, so rain only makes it wet. The cobbles on the quay are slippery, and the stretch by the shore is open to the wind.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
For further reading, before you go.