North Berwick by Train – The Law, Harbour and Tantallon Castle
A day by train and bus and on foot, from Edinburgh Waverley and back.
The route
North Berwick is a seaside town on the East Lothian coast, and an easy day out from Edinburgh without a car.
Old stone houses and red roofs sit between two sandy bays, with a small harbour in the middle and a cone of a hill, the Law, standing behind them. Offshore lies a string of islands, and the one that draws the eye is the Bass Rock, a steep island with a lighthouse on its side and, in the breeding season, a great colony of gannets. A little way along the coast, the red ruin of Tantallon Castle faces it from a cliff top. The train from Edinburgh ends above the town, everything in it is a walk from the station, and a country bus runs out to the castle.
Before you go
Book the castle ticket online, where it costs less than at the ticket office; from October to March last entry is 3.15pm, so the bus from North Berwick at about quarter to three is the last that gets you in, quarter to two on a Sunday.
The day
North Berwick
A day of sea air that starts on a morning train out of Edinburgh Waverley and gets its one stiff climb over first, for a view of the whole coast. After that the going is easy: a slow middle of the day by the water, then an afternoon on a cliff top facing the Bass Rock. It is about four and a half miles on foot.
North Berwick
An attraction
Trains leave Edinburgh Waverley for North Berwick about every hour, more often on Saturdays, and take about half an hour; check ScotRail for the day's times. On Sundays the first is not until mid-morning, so leave the Seabird Centre's Discovery Experience out. Keep your ticket: it earns a discount at the centre. The station is the end of the line, above the town, with no staff and no toilets. The town and the sand are ten to fifteen minutes' walk downhill, but first comes the hill behind.
50 min on foot
North Berwick Law
An attraction
It's about 50 minutes' walk to the top: the first 20 through the town's streets to the Law car park, then a steep, waymarked climb of about 145 metres. Law is Scots for a cone of a hill, and this one is an old volcano's plug, 187 metres high. On top is a fibreglass copy of the old whalebone arch, with the Bass Rock to the north-east. The path is slippery when wet. Allow an hour and a quarter from the car park, up and down.
About 20 min on foot
Steampunk Coffee
A café
The walk back down the same path and into the town takes about 40 minutes. Steampunk roasts its own coffee in a white-painted former joinery workshop on Kirk Ports, just behind the High Street, with the roaster in view of the bar and a wood-burning stove. It's open every day, 9am to 5pm, for coffee and cake. A few steps away, in its graveyard, is the ruin of St Andrew's Kirk, built between 1658 and 1664; its interior is fenced off.
About 5 min on foot
North Berwick Harbour
An attraction
The High Street and Quality Street lead in 7 minutes to the harbour, where yachts and fishing boats lie inside the stone walls. The West Bay is a long beach looking out to the island of Craigleith; Milsey Bay, to the east, has a boating pond built into the rocks, which keeps its water when the tide goes out. The ruin on Anchor Green, the grass beside the harbour, was the town's original parish church. The Lobster Shack serves seafood through a hatch here on some days: check lobstershack.co.uk.
2 min on foot
Scottish Seabird Centre
The Scottish Seabird Centre is 2 minutes' walk across Anchor Green. See the ticketed Discovery Experience first, an hour and a quarter of live cameras on the Bass Rock and daily talks; skip it on a Sunday. Then have lunch at the café, which is free to walk into and looks out to the rock. The gannets leave as October ends, so in winter ask what the cameras show. The number 120 bus for Tantallon goes from the shelter on Melbourne Road: check the day's times before lunch.
8 min by bus, 10 min on foot
Tantallon Castle
An attraction
It's 8 minutes by bus, then 10 minutes' walk up the castle road. The red curtain wall crosses a cliff headland facing the Bass Rock. From October to March last entry is 3.15pm, so the bus at about quarter to three is the last that gets you in, quarter to two on Sundays. The bus back to the station leaves from across the A198, opposite the castle road. On a winter Sunday catch the one soon after three: the next is two hours later, after dark. Never walk the road.
If it rains
The Law is no hill for a wet day: the path is steep and slippery and the view is the whole point, so leave the summit out and walk straight down into the town. Steampunk and the Scottish Seabird Centre are both under a roof, and the Discovery Experience and the café between them will see out most showers. The Coastal Communities Museum on School Road is free and run by volunteers; it isn't open every day, so check coastalmuseum.org before you count on it. Tantallon stands open to the weather on its cliff, and its grass paths turn muddy. In heavy rain or a gale, leave the castle for another day and take an earlier train home: they run about hourly.
Worth a detour
- Seacliff
Seacliff is for a day with a car: the A198 beyond Tantallon has no pavement, so there is no safe way to it on foot. About half a mile past the castle road end, at Auldhame, a narrow estate road leaves the A198 on a tight bend and runs for about a mile down to a car park behind a coin-operated barrier, so bring coins. Below it is a private beach of sand and red rock with the Bass Rock offshore, Tantallon on its cliff along the shore and a tiny harbour cut into the rocks. The beach is tidal: check a tide table before you go.
- Yellowcraig
East Lothian's bigger beaches lie west of North Berwick. Yellowcraig is a natural cove of sand and dunes backed by woodland, looking out to the lighthouse on Fidra, the island said to have inspired Treasure Island. By car, turn off the A198 at Dirleton for the coastal car park, which is pay and display. Without one, the bus between North Berwick and Edinburgh stops in Dirleton beside its castle. From there the waymarked John Muir Way leads to the beach, about a mile and a half and 35 minutes' walk. Check the bus times. The same bus passes through Gullane, 10 minutes' walk from Gullane Bents, a wide sandy bay with a path through its dunes.
Make it a weekend
More days out in East Lothian.
Photograph by Stuart Moorhouse via Google