Marshall Meadows Manor House enjoys a wonderful location looking out onto the North Sea, a short…
Along the cliffs to St Abb's Head
A windswept Scottish walk among much coastal wildlife.
4 miles (6.4kms)
About the walk
St Abb's Head is one of those places that people forget to visit. You only ever seem to hear it mentioned on the shipping forecast – and its name is generally followed by a rather chilly outlook, along the lines of 'northeasterly five, continuous light drizzle, poor'. In fact, you could be forgiven for wondering if it even exists or is simply a mysterious expanse of sea, like Dogger, Fisher or German Bight.
Cliff dwellers
But St Abb's Head does exist, as you'll find out on this lovely windswept walk, which will rumple your hair and leave the salty tang of the sea lingering on your lips. The dramatic cliffs, along which you walk to reach the lonely lighthouse, form an ideal home for thousands of nesting seabirds as they provide superb protection from mammalian predators. Birds you might spot on this walk include guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, herring gulls, shags and fulmars – as well as puffins. Guillemots and razorbills are difficult to differentiate, as they're both black and white, and have an upright stance – rather like small, perky penguins. However, you should be able to spot the difference if you've got binoculars as razorbills have distinctive blunt beaks. Both birds belong to the auk family, the most famous member of which is probably the great auk, which went the way of the dodo and became extinct in 1844 – a victim of the contemporary passion for egg collecting.
Luckily no egg collector could scale these cliffs, which are precipitous and surrounded by treacherous seas. Do this walk in the nesting season (May to July) and you may well see young birds jumping off the high cliff ledges into the open sea below. Even though they can't yet fly, as their wings are little more than stubs, the baby birds are nevertheless excellent swimmers and have a better chance of survival in the water than in their nests, where they could fall prey to marauding gulls. Neither razorbills nor guillemots are particularly agile in the air, but they swim with the ease of seals, using their wings and feet to propel and steer their sleek little bodies as they fish beneath the waves.
Low life
While the steep cliffs are home to most of the seabirds round St Abb's Head, the low, flat rocks below are also used by wildlife, as they are the favoured nesting site of shags. These all-black birds are easily distinguishable from their relative, the cormorant, by their distinctive crest. They also lack the cormorant’s white throat patch. They tend to fly low over the water, in contrast to the graceful fulmars that frequently soar along the cliff tops as you walk, hitching a ride on convenient currents of air.
Walk directions
From the car park, take the path that runs past the information board and the play area. Walk past the visitor centre, then take the footpath on the left, parallel to the main road. At the end of the path turn left and go through a gate – you'll immediately get great views of the sea.
Follow the clearly marked all-ability Discovery Trail path past the sign to Starney Bay and continue, passing fields on your left-hand side. The track now winds around the edge of the bay – to your right is the little harbour at St Abbs. The track then winds around the cliff edge, past dramatic rock formations and eventually to some steps.
Walk down the steps, then follow the grassy track as it bears left, with a fence on the left. Go up a slope, through a gate, and maintain direction on the obvious grassy track. The path soon veers away from the cliff edge, past high ground on the right, then runs up a short, steep slope to a crossing of tracks, passing a butterfly haven on the right. With the long, narrow Mire Loch a short distance on your left and the slopes of Kirkhill on your right, do not turn left but carry on more or less straight ahead on the path marked 'Lighthouse Loop'.
Maintain direction by keeping to the coastal path which runs up a slope. You'll soon get great views of the St Abb's lighthouse ahead, dramatically situated on the cliff's edge. Continue to the lighthouse and walk in front of the lighthouse buildings and down to join a tarmac road. Take care as this path is steep and eroded.
Follow the road down to the bottom of the hill, then 50yds (46m) before a cattle grid, turn left down a narrow path.
Continue along the path and cross a stile. The path now runs through scrub and woodland along the edge of a loch. Continue along the path to a junction with a track.
Turn right along the wide track and walk up to the road. Go left now and continue to cross a cattle grid. When you reach a bend in the road, follow the tarmac track as it bears left. You'll soon go through a gate, then pass some cottages before reaching the car park on the left-hand side.
Additional information
Clearly waymarked footpaths and established tracks, may be muddy and slippery in places
Dramatic cliff tops and lonely lighthouse
Keep on lead in nature reserve and by cliffs
Dramatic cliff tops and lonely lighthouse
At NTS Nature Centre
At NTS Nature Centre
<p>Take extra care near cliffs.</p>
WALKING IN SAFETY
Read our tips to look after yourself and the environment when following this walk.
Find out more
Also in the area
About the area
Discover Scottish Borders
Southern Scotland is often referred to as the Lowlands, to distinguish it from the mountainous grandeur of the North-West Highlands. But don’t be fooled by the description. In places, the landscape can be anything but flat. This is a different Scotland to the rest of the country in terms of character and identity but, in terms of scenery, no less spectacular and just as fascinating.
Jedburgh, despite its turbulent history, is a peaceful country town beside the serpentine Jed Water, with only the abbey walls hinting at its former grandeur. One of the most elegant of the Border towns is Kelso, with its wide cobbled square at its heart. A poignant fragment is all that remains of Kelso Abbey, once the largest of the Border abbeys, destroyed by the English in 1545.
Like most towns and villages in the area, Melrose developed on the back of the tweed and knitwear industry, which brought wealth to the Scottish Borders, utilising the distinctive, Roman-nosed Cheviot Hill sheep and the availability of water power for the looms. Head to Peebles to shop for locally made knitwear and enjoy the peace and fresh air, where walks, trails and cycleways lead into the wooded countryside.
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