Details

Walk: St Abbs and Coldingham
Guide: Julie
Walk leaders: Martin / Ruth
Weather: Sunny and warm
Distance of walk: 9 miles

New area to walk in

The Scottish Borders is the most northerly area we have walked in and area which most of the group hadn’t visited before.

Meeting up

Julie, Martin, Glynis and Anne arrived early so headed down to St Abbs to check out the cafe facilities.  What a result as we found Ebba’s Bistro.  We would return later in the day.

Once we were suitably fed and watered we headed back up to the Nature Reserve where Ruth was doing a great job of welcoming everyone.

It was great to see some walkers we hadn’t seen for a while Glynis, Mary I, Linda, Lynn and Chris R.  As well as some of our regular walkers.

A quick warm up and we were off.

The Walk

Mire Loch

The road from the Nature reserve took us up to Mire Loch.  This is a very picturesque natural loch.  A group photo was taken at the end of the Loch, at a place called Pettico Wick, where we got the incredible view of the bays North of St Abb’s Head.

At this point there were two options:  the road around the hill or the footpath straight up over the hill. Jokingly Martin said who wants to go straight up the hill.  Surprisingly, there were a lot of takers.  As we have 3 walk leaders we are able to split the group so Martin and Ruth took the hill and Julie took the road.  The road walkers reached the top first and waited at St Abb’s Head Lighthouse for the rest of the group to catch up.  We had a quick refreshment stop and chance to catch our breath.

St Abbs

From St Abb’s Head we walked back down to the harbour.  We took a moment to look over the quaint little harbour, from the viewing point outside the visitors centre, before walking down some steps to the harbour itself.

Coastal path and Coldingham Sands

The coastal path lead us South, out of the village.  This is a typical craggy coastal walk, varying regularly between cliff top walking and down into coves and on beaches.  The scenery was stunning and there was a lovely little section of beach at Coldingham Sands.

Coldingham

We turned inland towards Coldingham and had a quick stop to look around the ruins of Coldingham Priory.

The Creel Path

We followed the path alongside the stream and up to the Creel Path which was previously used by the monks to access the harbour at St Abbs, for fishing.  The Creel Path took us back to St Abbs.

Back to Ebba’s Bistro

Back in St Ebbs most of the group visited Ebba’s Bistro.  Decisions made for Cullen Skink, burger, fish pie, toasties, scones cake and the excellent blackcurrant cheesecake.  What a find Ebba’s Bistro was.

I hope you enjoyed this beautiful and varied walk.

Thank you Ruth and Martin for helping and everyone for the fantastic photographs.

Next walks are: 5th May 2018 at Holy Island for the Pilgrim’s Causeway and 19th May 2018 at Bellingham and Hareshaw Linn.  I hope to see you soon.

Julie