Visiting St Abbs - Things to Do in St Abbs in the Scottish Borders
Written by David Wheater
If you’re planning to visit St Abbs in the Scottish Borders, I really hope you enjoy the video and find the following information useful. Everything is written & created by myself, without using AI.
About St Abbs
St Abbs is a small fishing village on the east coast of Scotland in the lovely Scottish Borders. Prior to the residential establishment of the village in the middle of the 18th century, the local fishermen lived close by in ‘Coldingham Shore’ and travelled to their boats on the shore.
In the late 1800’s, the then laird, Andrew Usher, significantly improved the village and harbour. He built a mansion for himself and a new village school and hall, which is now occupied by the St Abbs Visitor Centre. In the early days of Christianity in Scotland, a monastery was founded here on St Abbs Head by the Abbess Aebbe in 679AD. She was the sister of King Oswiu of Northumbria and a Royal Princess. She became a saint and her name was given to the village at the end of the 19th century by the aforementioned laird, Andrew Usher, who is often referred to as the ‘father of blended Scotch whisky’.
Quiet St Abbs isn't perhaps somewhere you'd associate with one of the highest grossing films in history, but it served as ‘New Asgard’, the fictional home of Thor, in the final instalment of the Marvel Avengers film: Endgame. Cyrus house in the harbour was converted into the ‘Cormorant and Ton’ pub, and the old schoolhouse was made into the costume department. The locals were all sworn to secrecy and any businesses that couldn't operate during filming were compensated. The village is now officially twinned with the fictional New Asgard and still attracts lots of film fans today. A couple of years later in 2019, the village was the setting for the fictional island of ‘Eroda’ in Harry Styles video ‘Adore You’. So St Abbs has a lot of recent history, which is very exciting to discover, especially for film and music fans.
St Abbs Head & National Nature Reserve
Just a short walk from the village is one of Scotland's most spectacular nature reserves St Abbs head. The reserve is located on a coastal headland with spectacular sea views, and is a paradise for bird lovers. During the summer, there are estimated to be over 60,000 seabirds to be seen on the spectacular rugged cliffs.
There's a really good car park, which costs £5 for the day (free for NTS members), and if you're hungry, there's an excellent social enterprise cafe at ‘Borders Pottery’ next to the visitor centre, which is a great way to start your day out. Mire Loch in the reserve is a beautiful and peaceful man-made loch with a lovely boathouse. It was built around 1900 primarily for recreation and fishing. It's a great place for bird spotting, and is well known for its flocks of gulls and kittiwakes in early summer, and you can also see dragonflies and damsel flies here too.
Coldingham Priory
In Coldingham itself, it's well worth stopping to have a walk around Coldingham Priory. Today there's just a modest church and ruins, but 700 years ago there was a highly influential and powerful church, which was one of the richest in Scotland. The remains actually still lie under the current church today. The early beginnings of a religious settlement began nearby at St Ab's Head, where St Aebbe established a small community of monks and nuns in the 600s. This settlement was destroyed by fire, and a church was built here in Coldingham. The Norman ruler Edgar, on establishing himself in Scotland, gave permission to the monks of Durham to build a new church here, which became one of Scotland's most influential. This was destroyed in 1216 by King John of England, trying to suppress rebellion in the area. The prior, Thomas de Melsonby, then built a much larger church, which became very wealthy and powerful during the 14th century, trading goods as far as Europe. Over the next couple of centuries, its power and influence waned, and it was eventually destroyed by Oliver Cromwell in the middle of the 1600s. As I walked around the church, I was drawn to this amazing collection of stone artefacts called ‘Collector's Corner’. It's a truly astonishing collection of carved stones and gravestones that were put together here in the 19th century. The stones are set in the remains of the west wall of the south transept, and some date to the earliest priory. It’s a truly fascinating collection and some of my favourites are the green man, gravestones for Templar Knights, who obviously must have had a strong connection to this area, and two gravestones showing a shepherd's crook and the figure of a woman.
There’s a small, free car park located next to the priory and I can also throughly recommend ‘The Luckenbooth Coffee Shop’, next to the car park, which has wonderful coffee & cakes and also excellent breakfast rolls (which were lovely!).
Coldingham Bay Beach
Also known as ‘Coldingham Sands’, this was one of the highlights of my visit. It’s a gorgeous, sheltered sandy beach with the most wonderful beach huts, which are all painted in very pretty pastel colours. There is a convenient car park just a short walk away from the beach and you can get a coffee from the ‘St Vedas Surf Shop & School’ if the ‘Beach Cafe’ is closed (which it was when I visited in early May). I really enjoyed taking some time to sit on the beach and reflect on life and its up’s and down’s. Having just lost my mum, it was a much needed lift after a lot of sadness and grief. If you’re up for a walk, there are wonderful coastal walks from the beach, which I really enjoyed.
Fast Castle on Fast Head
As you can see, ‘Fast Castle’ is very much a ruin, but it has an interesting history and its location is spectacular with incredible sea views. It's located on a rocky promontory overlooking the North Sea near to St Abbs Head national nature reserve. I found the walk-in quite challenging and there are a few parts which I thought were really quite precarious. So please only attempt this walk if you're fit and strong and I don't think it's something you should do alone. I visited on a beautiful warm day in May and the winds were still ferocious. So please be extremely careful if you visit. The castle was built on cliffs nearly 150 feet high and would have had a keep, a courtyard and a curtain wall with towers. It would have been difficult to breach with a drawbridge, but despite this changed hands between England and Scotland many times. I think it would have looked much like a mini ‘Dunnottar Castle’ in Aberdeenshire, which many of you may already know. The earliest origins of a castle aren't actually known, but it first appeared in records in the early 1300s, and an English garrison was stationed here in 1346. There have been some archeological digs which uncovered some iron-age artefacts. The castle had a few high status visitors, including Margaret Tudor, who stayed here in 1503 on her way to marry James I, and also Mary queen of Scots who stayed here in 1566. It's quite a thought that I followed in their footsteps and today you'd never really know that such an impressive castle even existed for them to stay in.
Isabel Cowe & Jane Hay - Local Heroes
One of St Abb’s most notable residents and a native of the village was Isabel Cowe. She was a highly respected business owner and suffragette, who dedicated her life to charitable causes in the village. She devoted herself to the ‘Children's League of Pity’, and was awarded the R.N.L.I’s Golden Beach Award for her support of the local St. Abb’s lifeboat crew. The boarding house she ran from 1914 to 1931 still exists, and there’s a memorial to her in the garden. Another amazing lady who lived in the haven, and actually built it in 1905, was Jane Hay. She was a suffragette and philanthropist, born in Leith in Edinburgh, who inherited enough from her father in 1881 to become financially independent. She dedicated her life to helping the poor and alleviating suffering, with a particular focus on helping destitute women and children in Edinburgh and around the world. She moved to St. Abbs in the early 1900s and her campaign for local lifeboats succeeded in 1911 when the lifeboat station was commissioned. She sadly died in the Alps at age just 49 and is buried in the priory churchyard in nearby Coldingham.
The Abba Heritage Trail
As I was exploring Coldingham, I came across this lovely stretch of the Abba Heritage Trail. It's a circular route, 2 miles in length, and the route I'm following here is along ‘Fisher's Brae’ and the ‘Scavie Burn’. It looked absolutely wonderful in the sunlight and, if you're in Coldingham, it's well worth just taking a little walk down here. There's picnic benches where you can have a picnic and something to eat. It was something I didn't actually know was here, but it's always just lovely to stumble across beautiful little spots like this.
I really hope you enjoy the video of my visit to lovely St Abbs. I found it very peaceful and restorative - and there’s something for everyone, whether you just want to relax on the beach or love history and exploring castles.
If you’d like to see more of my videos and adventures around Scotland you can see more on my Youtube channel and, if you’re coming to Edinburgh or Glasgow, you can book a tour with me and I’d be delighted to show you around these wonderful cities.
Thank you for reading.
Best wishes,
David
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