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Over the past few years we've made a habit of visiting at least one big seabird colony each spring / summer. In previous years it's been Bass Rock, St Kilda, Sumburgh Head, some of the Orkney Islands... but this year we stayed on the mainland, with a visit to St Abb's Head in the Borders. We parked the car in Eyemouth village centre and took the infrequent bus service to Coldingham, a few miles further north; the plan was to cobble together a couple of separate WH routes and make a full day of it.
Coldingham was deserted on this weekday morning, except for a few builders working on the electricity supply (?) at Coldingham Priory. The doors to the priory were locked but the building is worth a look from the outside, with various ruined arches and foundations hinting that this was once a much larger complex.
A path leads east from the priory, soon emerging on the road out of the village. After a few hundred metres following pavements, the old Creel Road turns off: a path once used by fishermen scuttling between Coldingham and the nearby coast. The path is still well-used (but by walkers!) and runs through a pleasant tunnel of tree branches between fields.
A mile later we emerged at the top of St Abbs, which has a nondescript top half and a beautiful lower part by the harbour. The village recently appeared in the final Avengers film as New Asgard, so we guess it's probably undergoing a bit of a tourist boom! Nevertheless it wasn't particularly busy today. The best views of the village are from the end of the long harbour walls.
We had a quick browse of the St Abbs Visitor Centre at the northwest end of town before following the B6438 back into the countryside.
The coast path to St Abb's Head soon turns off to the right, and after passing through a few fields ascends to give stunning views back to the village.
The real interest lies ahead though: a few miles of fantastic cliffs, stacks and seabird colonies with the focal point around the private lighthouse near the headland's high point. There were several areas of ledges where seabirds were gathering, but the best viewpoints are immediately beyond the lighthouse, where you can get quite close to the colony. The main paths don't always give the best views, staying a bit far from the cliff edges - head onto the smaller paths.
Sharp, knife-like stacks stick up from the North Sea, with every inch of space seemingly taken up by nesting birds:
Some of the razorbills were already tending to eggs:
The softer features of guillemots:
The walk around the headland ends with magnificent views north along the coast towards even higher cliffs.
For the return, we followed a path above the southwest shore of Mire Loch, rather than taking the WH route along the tarmac access track. A few swans, and another interesting dimension to the nature reserve, though the birdlife on the loch is probably a bigger draw over winter.
At the end of the loch, a steep climb regains the tarmac road out of the reserve.
The reserve has another visitor centre to explore (only half a mile from the one belonging to the village!) before we headed back to St Abbs, this time continuing south along the coast path. The half moon-shaped Coldingham Bay was next on the list, with a few decent rock pools and houses with views to die for:
The last few miles back to Eyemouth don't live up to St Abb's Head in terms of excitement, but still have plenty of variety with clifftop paths above wave-cut platforms, small shingle beaches and quiet burn mouths.
A caravan park heralds the arrival at Eyemouth, with a long flight of steps pointlessly constructed down to a rather piddly cove. It's a nice view from the top, but there are dozens of spots where these steps would be more useful!
Eyemouth at last!
We've set the bar pretty high on our past few seabird-season excursions, but St Abb's Head is certainly up there with the best the Borders has to offer.
