We are up and out into the overcast, chilly day a little after 8am for our 30-minute walk to train station, passing down below the castle perched up on the rocks and on along the outskirts of the New Town. 

Arriving early (surprise!), we just hung out on the platform, not wanting to risk going someplace for more coffee and missing the train, which is already sitting here at the station. Right on time the doors open, we hop in and easily find our assigned seats. It’s a quick ride – only 24 minutes – to Dunbar where we disembark to find a sweet little typical Scottish town, very sleepy at this time of day. There is one main road lined with shops, bakeries, restaurants and pubs.  Still needing coffee, and someplace to waste a little time until the John Muir house opens, we stop at The Bear and the Bull – a bar, but also coffee shop in the mornings.  It is a small cute little place with comfy seating, but unfortunately a very unhappy, unfriendly bartender behind the bar.  She is definitely not happy with our intrusion into her morning set up – but does grudgingly make us 2 cappuccinos, so at least we get some caffeine.

Fortified, we meander down the street to the birthplace of John Muir, inventor, botanist, geologist, glaciologist, farmer, artist – and most famously environmental campaigner.  Born in 1838 right here in this very house, the 3^rd of 8 children, the house has now been turned into a museum with 3 floors of exhibits a museum chronicling Muir’s entire life.  Muir lived here for 11 years, and loved to explore the countryside around him, falling in love with the natural world saying, “I was fond of everything that was wild, and all of my life I’ve been growing fonder and fonder of wild places and wild creatures.” 

We wandered about the floors, fascinated with the history, his upbringing with his strict (and bordering on abusive) religious father; his relationship with his brother David and the “scootchers,” or dares, they went on at night, sneaking out of their house to explore the wilderness; his whittling (who knew?), creating working clocks, that he exhibited at the Madison State Fair to such fabulous reviews it secured him a place at Wisconsin University; how he camped with Teddy Roosevelt, impressing Roosevelt so much that the President went back to DC and started working on conservation areas; the creation of the Sierra club and so much more.  An excellent overview of the wondrous things John Muir has done for this world.

Our favorite quote:  “Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.”

John Muir

Well worth the visit and the time.  On our way out we buy a booklet that details John Muir’s Clifftop trail – a perfect purchase as we plan to walk the trail after lunch.  Which is on the horizon – but first a stroll through the still quite town, loving the architecture and the smalltown feel that is so typically Scotland.  Heading down a lovely wide residential lane, we pass the 100-year commemoration flower logo for Dunbar United FC (of course, its football!!) and lots of lovely houses, including one with an obvious overabundance of bird feeders judging from the literally 100’s of birds perched on the roof and around the garden, on our way to Brewery lane and the Belhaven Brewery.  Can’t miss the local brewery!

Unfortunately, our timing won’t allow us to take a tour, but we do get to visit the great bottle shop and merch store where we succumb to a cool t-shirt for Ed (in the best of Belhaven Football Club style) and a cute little bottle opener, just because.  We wanted to buy some beer but didn’t want to haul it around with us all day long. After a nice long chat with the guy manning the shop, we walk back up to the main road to wait for The Brig & Barrel to open, our choice of lunch spot.

The Brig & Barrel is a cute local pub, that fills up quickly, making us glad we were here right at opening. We don’t know hold old the building is, but the current owners bought it and renovated in 2018, which apparently was quite the job because it took them almost a year to open – they left a space open in the paneling to show the stenciling they found on the wall under 5 layers of wallpaper!  Eek.  You can see the original “Belhaven Bill” with his winning beer trophy.    The menu is as cute as Belhaven Bill, with items like Pig and Goat crostini – how can we resist that?  Essentially prosciutto, goat cheese and fig jam, it makes a great starter with our wine and – yes of course – Belhaven beer.  We split a Steak and Belhaven Best pie, which was excellent and just the right amount of food to fortify us for our upcoming cliff walk.

Out into the now sunshine, we walk over to Belhaven Bay, walking the trail toward Biel Water and Seafield Pond, with the saltmarsh and mudflats on one side, the pond on the other (which at one time was the pits – used for clay extraction and brickworks before being made over into the Seafield Pond we see today) and tons of birds everywhere you look.  There is also a great long view of the Bridge to Nowhere at low tide (at high tide it looks like the bridge has been built in the middle of the sea).

Making it out to the Biel Water bridge, we hang out there – letting the landscaping guy pass us on his lawn mower – enjoying the gorgeous views down the river that flows from the lower slopes of the hills behind us, feeding fresh water into the sea creating the brackish estuary where the mudflats form.

Circling around the bay, we get a closer look at the Bridge to Nowhere, wishing we could be here at high tide, then move on around the coast, past the Winterfield Golf Course – where you seriously have to keep your head up to watch for stray golf balls heading your way (as one actually did further along on our walk!). 

It’s so pretty up here, walking along the cliffs – dare I say moors?  Well not really – following John Muir’s footsteps and imaging him as a child scampering all over these rocky cliffs and open meadows.  Simply lovely, and a great respite from 2 days of city explorations. 

In addition to the scenic views, there are also war memorials placed here and there.  One looks like a bizarre upside-down concrete thimble that has a navigational star on the top pointing out directions and measurements to various cities across the islands.  Another, closer to the main harbor, is of typical design, built out of “Dunbar Marble,” blocks of local limestone, with the names of all those lost in the Wars inscribed on the base.  It was originally erected in 1921 and placed on a rocky outcrop closer to the water, but erosion forced the relocation to this location in the 1980s. 

Closing in the ruins of the Dunbar Castle, we carefully pick our way around the eroded trail over top the Dunbar beach access, overlooking quite a few people enjoying the sun and the water.  And also the couple that has managed to swim out to and climb up on Doo’s Rock!  Crazy kids!  Looks pretty treacherous to us, but they seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves sunning on the top of the rock.

The castle ruins are amazing – with an amazing history to boot.  Fortified for over 1,000 years, the castle was burned in 1214, defended against the English by Black Agnes, and used as a shelter by Mary, Queen of Scots, after the murder of David Rizzio – Mary’s secretary and possibly lover – at Holyroodhouse in 1566.The Scottish Parliament ordered the castle be demolished after that as it was too convenient a stronghold for enemies of the ruling powers.  Now it is just incredible to look at the remaining stonework and the erosion that has caused holes in the shoreline and the collapse of what was once a large arch over the water where John Muir and his friends used to play ancient warriors. 

A quick walk finds us back on Main street in town, with plenty of time to kill before our evening train.  Making a fairly quick stop at the Dunbar Town House museum and gallery – a nice gallery with local art – we then plop down at the Eagle Inn, a lovely local place, for an afternoon beer and wine.  Here, as opposed to across the street and The Bear and Bull, the bartender is a sweet doll who chats us up a storm, including suggestions for finding true Scottish shortbread that my mom’s friend has said we must have.  After our drinks, we head down the Crunchy Carrot, right past the Tipsy Truffle (gotta love these names!) for some real, to find said local Shortbread. And lo and behold, there it was right on the counter, locally made, looking all the world like the same packaging as the original Asheville Pretzels! Definitely local – and decidedly excellent, not like commercial store bought shortbread.  Yum.

Then it is back to the train, another quick ride back to Edinburgh where we wander along Princes Street Gardens, past the ever imposing Scott Monument and onto our lovely little apartment to prepare our bags for our Ryan Air flight to Dublin tomorrow.  We had so much food leftover, we ate in, once again, and then relaxed the rest of the evening away watching our TV shows.