DALMENY HOUSE WAS HOME TO THE
EARLS OF ROSEBERY FOR OVER 300 YEARS
East
Lothian
East Lothian, named for Loth, King of the Votadini, steeped in history,
is a golfer’s and naturalist’s paradise. What golfer has not
heard of Muirfield, just one of the area’s sixteen fine
links. What ornithologist not of Bass Rock? What holiday maker
has not been charmed by the neat villa-rich resorts?
Dunbar, once a major (now a minor) fishing port, boasting then
of its smuggling, now of its record of the lowest rainfall, the highest
hours of sunshine in Scotland, is a developing resort. Edward II fled
to sea from the port after Bannockburn, Cromwell took 10,000 prisoners
here. Lauderdale House is by Robert Adam, the Town House
in High Street is the oldest civic building in Scotland. Dunbar Castle,
ragged ruins by the New Harbour now, was defended by Black Agnes, sheltered
Mary and her Darnley. The Parish Church, recently restored, is of fine
red sandstone, the octagonal 17th c. Tolbooth. The Old Harbour’s
cobbled quays were built for Cromwell in 1650. Torness Power Station
is restored as an interpretive centre.
Whitekirk, once a pilgrimage site visited by Pope Pius II —
his visit commemorated in a romantic painting in Sienna Cathedral —
has a meticulously restored 12th c. church burnt by suffragettes in
1914. Formidable clifftop Tantallon Castle (open daily except
Wed & Thurs Oct-Mar), one of Scotland’s great castles described
in Scott’s poem Marmion, was the Douglasses stronghold, resisting
many a siege inside its 12ft thick, 50ft high curtain wall with its
gatehouse and flanking towers, till it succumbed to General Monck in
1651.
Off shore the volcanic Bass Rock rearing a dramatic 350ft from
the sea mists, now a famous gannetry, was once a hermit’s sanctuary.
