Dirleton Castle and Gardens

Said to be the sunniest area of Scotland, East Lothian boasts a dramatic coastline. In summer, you’ll hear larks singing high above the four-mile sweep of dunes, sandy shoreline and saltmarsh that forms the John Muir Country Park, named after the Dunbar-born explorer, naturalist and father of conservation. Eider and shelduck nest in the dunes, and gannets skim the waves on their way to and from their fishing grounds and roosts on the nearby Bass Rock.

Dunbar’s prosperity was built on fishing and whaling, and its three historic harbours are still home to a busy fleet of small fishing boats. The oldest is overlooked by Dunbar Castle whose ruins now provide a home to a vast colony of 600 pairs of kittiwakes. Tucked beside a rocky headland, North Berwick’s harbour is a yachting and lobster fishing centre. For 500 years it provided a ferry on the pilgrimage route to St Andrews, which dramatically shortened the journey from the south. The handsome market town of Haddington is set in prime agricultural country on the River Tyne. It was granted the status of a royal burgh in the 12th century and later became the county town for East Lothian.