A Visit to North Berwick and Tantallon Castle.
Just 35 minutes away by train, North Berwick is one of the best day trips from Edinburgh.
Besides being a very pretty little town with some interesting highlights, it is home to Tantallon Castle, a unique castle situated in a location overlooking the Firth of Forth (an estuary that’s always been strategically important).
All about North Berwick and Tantallon Castle in this post.
Getting to North Berwick from Edinburgh: There’s an hourly train (usually leaves about 40 minutes past the hour) from Edinburgh to North Berwick. Check the Scot Rail website. It takes about 35 minutes, so it usually arrives around 15 minutes past the hour.
Tantallon Castle
Tantallon Castle is absolutely worth a visit. Since it has scheduled hours (9:30 – 4:15 every day), we made it our first stop when visiting North Berwick.
How to get here North Berwick: At the train station in North Berwick, walk about 2 minutes to the main road and take the 120 bus. That will take you directly to Tantallon Castle. The only problem – the bus is hourly and usually leaves around 8 minutes past the hour. So if everything is on schedule (see what I say above about the train schedule), you’ll miss that bus by about 7 minutes when arriving in North Berwick. TIP: check the bus route on Google Maps, it updates if the bus is running late. In our case, the bus was 10 minutes behind schedule so our timing was perfect. The bus took about 20 minutes to get us to the castle.
The history of Tantallon Castle
Built in the mid-14th century, Tantallon Castle is unique – it has one wall that defends castle inhabitants from attacks from the interior. The other three sides are naturally defended by high sea cliffs. It is the last medieval curtain wall castle to be constructed in Scotland.
The Castle was built by the powerful Scottish House of Douglas.
About the Douglas family…if you’ve seen movies about Scottish Independence (we recently watched Outlaw King), Sir James Douglas (1286 – 1330) was a key figure fighting with Robert the Bruce, the king of Scotland. Known the “Black Douglas” he was Bruce’s most trusted friend, chief military commander, and a master of guerrilla warfare during the Scottish Wars of Independence. He was a commander at the decisive Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
In 1389 the House of Douglas split and Tantallon Castle passed to the Red Douglases (the Earls of Angus). The other part of the house, the Black Douglases, based themselves in Douglas Castle in Lanarkshire. The allegiances of both sides of the house also split: while the Black Douglases always fought for Scottish independence, the Red Douglases would align themselves with English kings.
Alignment with English kings led to conflict several times. The first was in 1491. After the 3rd Earl of Angus (as the Red Douglases were known) struck a deal with Henry VII of England, Tantallon Castle was invaded by Scottish troops (under the orders of Scottish King James IV). The Red Douglases conceded and Tantallon castle escaped with little damage.
In 1528 there was another siege of Tantallon castle, this time by James V. Again, the Red Douglases had colluded with the English, taking James V as a child. Years later at 16 years of age, James V wanted revenge and attacked the castle. Long story short, Tantallon was retained as a Royal fortress until James V’s death in 1542. It then fell back into the hands of the Earls of Angus.
During the “Rough Wooing” of Henry VIII (also known as the 8 years war between England and Scotland. 1543 – 1551) Tantallon Castle was bypassed by the English because of its historic allegiance. The Earl of Angus ended up being imprisoned by the Scottish and he finally changed sides. In 1548, Tantallon Castle fired on English ships during an engagement in the Firth of Forth.
Mary Queen of Scots visited Tantallon Castle in 1566. In 1592 her son James VI took possession of the castle.
The last major incidence at Tantallon Castle came in 1651 during the Third English Civil War (also known as The Anglo-Scottish war) when the English under Oliver Cromwell invaded Scotland. It led to 12 days of bombardment of the castle and the surrender of the Scottish. It left Tantallon Castle in ruins and in the state in which you see it today.
We spent about an hour at the castle. More than the castle itself (mostly ruins), it is its location on this promontory that is so impressive. We enjoyed walking the walls and the views over both the sea (and Bass rock which I’ll cover later) and inland. It feels like you’ve gone back in time.
North Berwick (and what to See)
We took the bus back into town. Make sure to time your exit from the castle to meet the 120 which only passes hourly. It’ll take about 10 minutes to get from the castle to the bus stop (which stops on the other side of the road to get back into town).
It took about 15 minutes to get back into the center of North Berwick. Unfortunately the weather had turned a bit by the time we got back.
Bass Rock
The white rock I have a bit further up is Bass Rock. A volcanic rock, it was the site of a castle which was later a prison (the Scottish version of Alcatraz). There’s lighthouse there and the remains of a chapel. But what Bass rock is known for these days is the largest colony of northern gannets in the world. The rock also has puffins.
Note: from a distance, Bass rock looks white. Why is that? It’s bird poop from all the birds. Underneath it all, the rock is grey and brown.
You can take boat trips to see all the birds from The Scottish Seabird Center (below).
The Scottish Seabird Center
The Center organizes trips out to Bass Island for those that want to see the northern gannets and puffins up close.
But if you don’t want to commit to that, the Seabird Center is known for its live cameras: inside you’ll see high-quality live cameras on all the different islands off North Berwick’s coast. So you’ll see the birds on Bass Island and possibly seals on the Isle of May.
It’s a marine conservation and education charity, so visiting is for a good cause. The Scottish Seabird Center website.
Around the Scottish Seabird Center
Around the Center is a beach, a church in ruins and some monuments. It is a picturesque area that’s very popular with visitors. But there’s more if you look further…beyond the harbour are rocks heading out into the water. A path with stairs runs along it and you get nice views of the coast and islands.
Walk around the Old Town
After walking around the jut of land around the Seabird Center, explore the town. It’s not big but its pretty.
If coming from the Seabird Center, go up Victoria Road. A block up it becomes Quality street: there are some nice restaurants, a very popular ice cream store (Alandas Gelato) and a few pretty monuments and lighthouses (“toy” lighthouses are a big thing in North Berwick. I’ll get to that). We had lunch at the Ship Inn, they have excellent Fish & Chips.
From there, walk along High Street to appreciate how pretty North Berwick is. It’s small, you’ll probably spend no more than 15 minutes walking around the streets.
“Toy” Lighthouses
I mentioned lighthouses above. You’ll see these beautiful toy lighthouses all over town. A few photos below. There’s a website if you want to know more, including a map you can download of the 15 lighthouses in town (I think we came across 10).
West Bay Beach
The highlights of High street peter out and you can walk a block back to the coast. Here you’ll see West bay beach which has more pretty views and there’s a nice park-like area to walk around (where you’ll also see the Tantallon golf course).
More things to see in North Berwick
The Law is a hill just outside town, a volcanic hill that you can climb for great views. It’s a very strange hill and, coming to North Berwick on the train, you can see it from miles away long before you arrive.
I had hoped to hike it but ran out of time. I’m told that it takes about 30 minutes to get to the summit from North Berwick town center. Views are great.
Castles. I’ve mentioned Tantallon Castle above. But there’s another castle called Dirleton Castle which gets good reviews and you can visit by bus – bus #124 from the train station gets you there in 15 minutes. So if you are into castles, you can easily visit two castles while in North Berwick.
National Museum of Flight. It’s 15 minutes from the center of North Berwick by car. But this museum is worth it, it gets great reviews. It even has a retired Concorde. I would have loved to see it. The website.
Bottom line is that there’s lots to see in North Berwick and it makes a fantastic day trip from Edinburgh.
Related: Edinburgh: a hike up to Arthur’s Seat
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