The Coldingham and St Abbs walk is the the furthest North that we usually go. It is one of the best walks though. The views are truly outstanding along the coast and the lovely village of Coldingham is very welcoming.
The start
For this walk, we start at St Abb’s Nature Reserve car park. As there were only us and two customers, this was effectively a private one-on-one. A quick warm-up and off we went. The first part heads up towards Mire Loch and to Pettico Wick. Pettico Wick is the classic viewpoint in this area. The curving high cliffs create a dramatic backdrop.
St Abb’s Head Lighthouse
From Pettico Wick, we decided to take the steep path up towards the lighthouse, rather than the road. Various locations here were used in the Marvel movie, Avengers Endgame. Hence the signs around St Abbs showing that it is twinned with New Asgard. One of the houses in the village was turned into Thor’s pub. It’s difficult to imagine Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner/Hulk) wandering about the village.
From St Abb’s Head, we followed the path back to St Abbs along the top of the cliffs. It was bit blustery up there. Luckily the wind was blowing inland and we weren’t blown off the cliffs.
St Abbs (twinned with New Asgard)
Walking in the footsteps of superheroes, we arrived at St Abbs (twinned with New Asgard). We decided to take a look in the St Abbs Visitor Centre. It’s lovely, modern and tells the history of St Abbs.
We wandered down to the harbour and through the village. The path follows the coast down to the nearest beach, locally called The Sands. It’s small but pretty and has its own beach cafe. Some local teenagers were learning how to surf and Tessa was thinking of trying one day.
Chris suggested this as our lunch stop as it was out of the wind.
In the next bay we turned inland and headed for Coldingham, across fields and farm tracks.
Coldingham
We approached Coldingham along St Andrew’s Burn. This leads directly into the grounds of the Priory, where we took a short break. On the way out of the priory several of us called into the little used bookshop just outside the gate, and made purchases. Leaving Coldingham we followed the Berwickshire Coast Path along another burn. This is where Julie somehow fell over and landed on her face. She had a black eye for two weeks from this.
Back to St Abbs
To get back to St Abbs, we used the Creel Path. This is an old route, from before St Abbs was established, that the inhabitants of Coldingham used to reach the harbour. They would carry their fishing gear along here, including their small boats or Creels. Hence the Creel Path.
On reaching St Abbs, the tearoom that we would normally use was closed. So, we walked up to the The Old Smiddy, next to where we had started.
A quick cool down and off for refreshments. After tea and cakes and a look round Number Four art and craft gallery, we set off back home.
Thanks for joining us on this great walk.
Julie and Martin x
If you liked the Coldingham and St Abbs walk why not take a look at our other walks.
Gallery – Coldingham and St Abbs
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