The National Trust for Scotland’s St Abbs Head Nature Reserve

An excellent route for birdwatching or just taking in the stunning coastline on the Berwickshire coast. This National Trust for Scotland Nature Reserve at St Abbs is arguably the most spectacular section of the Berwickshire coastline.

You will pass St Abbs lighthouse built in 1862 by the renowned engineers David and Thomas Stevenson.

1. Depending on where you start, you need to make your way to the Coastal Path which is clearly signposted from the B6348 (the road leading into the village.) Parking is available at St Abbs village or the NTS visitor centre.

2. The path starts out flat and surfaced although as you make your way out to the lighthouse it becomes increasingly hilly whist skirting quite close to the cliff edge at times. The walk is very rewarding with different vistas of cliffs and coast at every turn accompanied by the constant cry of birds. On reaching the sheltered rocky shore of Horsecastle Bay the path leads inland round Kirk Hill. The option exists to skirt the shore of Mire Loch on an unmade path to reach Pettico Wick, or, follow the track out past the Dam to the metalled road leading back to the visitors centre. This Loch attracts its own variety of birds such as Little Grebe, Reed Bunting, Heron, Mute Swan, Moorhen and Sedge Warbler, quite different from those on the cliffs.

3. Pass Kirk Hill following the worn path to the lighthouse. You may wish to nip over the headland to see the remains of St Abbs Kirk (monastery of St Ebba).

4. The now fully automated lighthouse was built in 1862 by the esteemed engineers David and Thomas Stevenson, responsible for many of the lighthouses in Scotland. Thomas’s son was Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous author. At the car park, walk towards the towering 90 metre cliffs to reveal a cacophony of noise and incessant motion with birds flying out to sea, returning, wheeling, diving and calling. It’s amazing how the parent birds can return every time to their own tiny scrap of cliff and their young.

5. Following the metalled road down to the cattle grid there are magnificent views to be had of the towering cliffs stretching to Fast Castle. A favourite venue for divers of the human kind, the cove of Pettico Wick has the remains of a jetty built to land supplies for the lighthouse prior to the road and this was also the location of an early salmon fishing station.

6. Follow the metalled road to lead you back through Northfield Farm steading (Take care of machinery movements) to the Visitors Centre and from here, on the footpath back into the village.