Barns Ness – Fossils, a Lighthouse and Lunch in Dunbar
2¾ miles · there and back
£3 parking · dogs welcome
Along the shore east of Dunbar, the rocks at Barns Ness began as mud and shells in shallow tropical seas about 320 million years ago, and fossil corals still show in the limestone at your feet.
This walk follows the shore from the sands at Whitesands, past an old lime kiln, to the tall white lighthouse, then lunch at a café on Dunbar's High Street.
Where it starts
Whitesands coastal car park (250 spaces): £3 a day at the pay-and-display machine or by RingGo, charged 8am to 4pm from October to March and 8am to 6.30pm from April to September; the ticket covers the council's other coastal car parks that day; Blue Badge holders do not pay; no parking from 11pm to 4am.
Is it for me?
Tap who is coming, or the day you have, for the answer on this walk.
Before you go
On the path
About 4.4 km (about 2.7 miles) there and back along the shore, about an hour's walking, longer with stops for fossils. Two disabled bays at the car park; the walk itself is over sand, rock and grass. For children, rock pools at low tide and fossils to find among loose pieces.
Good to know
All year, Wednesday to Sunday: Graze's lunch days. About 10am. From March to August birds nest on the beach and in the grassland: keep dogs on the paths, away from the top of the shore and always in sight. Toilets at the Whitesands car park, 9am to 4pm from 1 October to 31 March and 9am to 6pm from 1 April to 30 September; shut 25 and 26 December and 1 and 2 January.
The walk
The shore walk from Whitesands to Barns Ness lighthouse is about 4.4 km, or 2.7 miles, there and back, and you return the way you went. Allow about an hour of walking, and longer if you stop for fossils. The ground is sand, rock and grass, and the start is at the end of a single-track road off the A1087, south-east of Dunbar.
Whitesands is a bay of pale sand between rocky points, with rock pools when the tide is out. From here the shore runs east over limestone full of fossils: look among the loose pieces for corals, shells and the small round discs of crinoids. Hollows in the rock, seen when the tide is low, mark where the trunks of lycopod trees, relatives of today's club mosses, once stood. Low tide shows the most rock, so look up the tide times for Dunbar first.
About halfway is the old Catcraig lime kiln, one of many round here that burned coal and limestone together to make lime, which farmers spread to grow better crops. At the far end stands Barns Ness lighthouse, a white tower built between 1899 and 1901 by the Stevenson brothers, David and Charles, cousins of Robert Louis Stevenson. It was lit until 2005 and is now a listed building.
If it rains
On a wet day, Graze on the High Street is under cover, and the walk to the old lime kiln and back is about three-quarters of a mile.
Afterwards
7 min by car
Graze Coffee & Chocolate House
Lunch
Graze is a family-run café on Dunbar's High Street, 7 minutes' drive back into town. Lunch is served until last orders at 3.45pm: homemade lentil soup or the soup of the moment with bread, toasties, a croque monsieur or a jumbo fishfinger sandwich. There are home-baked scones and Yarde Farm ice cream to follow.
After the walk
Coffee and cake, something to do with the rest of the day, and dinner, nearest the end of the walk first.
Straight after
19 min by roadA caféDriftA clifftop cafe built from shipping containers on a farm near North Berwick, with views over the Firth of Forth to the Bass Rock.
23 min by roadA caféBostock BakeryAn artisan bakery on North Berwick High Street, known for its sourdough and French-style pastries, baked fresh each morning.-full-1719398777.jpg)
23 min by roadA caféSteampunk CoffeeA coffee roastery and coffee bar in an old joinery warehouse in North Berwick, roasting single-origin coffees on site, open every day.With the rest of the day
7 min by roadThings to doDunbar Golf CourseChampionship links on a narrow strip of shore at Dunbar, between the old Broxmouth deer park wall and the sea, with the Bass Rock on the horizon.
8 min by roadThings to doDunbar CastleThe red sandstone ruins of a castle on the rocks above Dunbar harbour, held by Black Agnes against a siege in 1338 and now home to kittiwakes.
11 min by roadThings to doBelhaven BridgeA footbridge over a stream on Belhaven Bay near Dunbar, known as the Bridge to Nowhere because at high tide it stands alone in the sea.
11 min by roadThings to doBerwickshire Coastal PathThirty miles of cliffs, coves and fishing villages from Cockburnspath to Berwick-upon-Tweed, one of Scotland's Great Trails.
13 min by roadThings to doPreston MillA picturesque watermill with a Dutch-style conical roof on the River Tyne at East Linton, working until 1959, with a doocot and Outlander connections.
13 min by roadThings to doHailes CastleThe ruins of one of Scotland's oldest stone castles, in the valley of the River Tyne near East Linton, linked with the Hepburns and Mary, Queen of Scots.For dinner
The Creel, Dunbar in Dunbar, 8 minutes by road. A small restaurant by Dunbar harbour cooking local seafood and East Lothian produce, much recommended by the town's own people.
Alandas Gelato in North Berwick, 23 minutes by road. An award-winning gelato shop in North Berwick, a short walk from the beach, making gelato each day with cream and milk from East Lothian.
North Berwick Fry in North Berwick, 23 minutes by road. A busy fish and chip shop and restaurant on Quality Street in North Berwick, a few steps from the beach, open all day into the evening.
Places to stay near the walk
Our places to stay nearest the start, by road.
An advert · Cockburnspath
Blue Cabin by the Sea
A blue timber cabin for four at the top of the beach at Cove Harbour, near Cockburnspath, reached through a tunnel cut in the rock in 1752.
Sleeps 4 · 14 minutes by road
See Blue Cabin by the Sea
More walks near here
Within a short drive of the start.
11 min by roadA walkBelhaven Bay to Dunbar3 miles, about two hours
12 min by roadA walkCove and Pease Dean3½ miles, about two hours
13 min by roadA walkEast Linton3 miles, an hour and a half or so
17 min by roadA strollTyninghame1¾ miles, about an hour
15 min by roadA walkSiccar Point3 miles, about two hours
17 min by roadA walkPressmennan WoodAbout two hoursDid this walk?
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For further reading, before you go.
Photographs by Alison Everingham and Graze Coffee & Chocolate House via Google
Maps from OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles, data © OpenStreetMap contributors; heights from Mapzen's terrain tiles.