21 and 27/05/06
From Andy S.
Loughborough, UK
who, with his wife, spent a week in 13 Duke Street
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We thoroughly enjoyed our holiday. The longer we were there, the more things we found we wanted to do. We had intended to go to Edinburgh for one of the days but decided we would better spend our time in East Lothian rather than rush around in a big city. We will see Edinburgh on another occasion. We went to a couple of the local castles - Tantallon and Dirleton, both very spectacular - and the Seabird centre at North Berwick where we adopted a gannet family. I have even started reading a book about the History of Scotland as I realised how ignorant I am. It clearly wasn't much fun being a Scottish King - they all seemed to get murdered. We didn't know much about John Muir before we arrived, but we do now. The John Muir Centre was excellent. I remember my Aunt visiting California in 1955 and telling us all about Yosemite National Park. It's nice to complete the picture. We really liked the small towns - Dunbar, North Berwick and Haddington. And the coastline is wonderful.
We hunted for Annie S. Swan's house, but didn't spot it. But the hunt was very interesting - a posh place is Gullane and we thought we were going to be thrown out of more than one golf club as we timidly used their car parks to turn round. Angela made enquiries about Annie S. Swan's house in Gullane library and they tried to find out for us from the local history library in Haddington, but all the staff were ill. They were pretty confident, though, that they could find the details from the local paper. So they have left a message with the people in Haddington and we hope to hear something soon.
The local history stuff in Dunbar Town House museum was good. I was particularly interested in the old swimming pool and the video they showed us. Angela remembered a similar pool by the sea in Scarborough from when she was a child and the lady in the museum told us that the Dunbar pool was based on that. I assume Dunbar was to Edinburgh what places like Margate and Southend were to London in the past - places for day trips and family holidays which have now gone out of fashion. I did see a couple of little boys come from the Beach at the end of Duke Street with buckets and spades. Is it still a busy place for family seaside holidays during the school holidays? Belhaven beach would certainly justify it.
We got to the Shoestring café and had an excellent curry and it was the only place we found where we could get a fruit scone. We hope it can continue. Its a bit too far out of town to enable an easy trade and it is difficult for people to park if they go by car because all the parking places are taken by commuters. We realized that Dunbar is now a major commuter town for Edinburgh. Clearly there is a growth industry in Children's Nurseries.
We will certainly be back up there sometime in the future as there is so much more for us to see.
Thanks again for all your help.
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15/11/04
From Kirby Duncan,
Ferndale,
Washington State, USA
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My parents moved our family to Scotland from Florida when I was seven - 1976. We bought Seafield House and lived there for about two years. I remember building little wooden boats and playing in the water by the bridge in the summer and climbing on the rocks below the golf course. I remember that we had a big snow storm one winter. Some friends and I took to sledding down one of the fairways of the golf course. Belhaven was a wonderful place to be as a child.
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1/12/03
From Jean_W in Hunter Valley, NSW
who was born in Belhaven
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You know, I spent most of my summers at Belhaven Beach. In the 50's & 60's there were vast array of 'chalets' (old caravans, large sheds, etc.) right down on the beach but me and my pals always felt that they belonged to toffs!! Anyone who could afford ANY type of holiday home and spend the summer in it were toffs as far as we were concerned. We made lots of friends with the kids who lived there but there was always a bit of 'them and us'.
It never seemed to bother us that the sewage outlet flowed straight into the swimming hole where we spent most of our time - because the water was warmer there!! I don't believe it was raw sewage but there were definitely some odd things used to come through it!! I lived up in Pine Street and walked to the beach every day. I remember going to Eildon's shop - the house next door to the pub (Eagle?). The shop was a room off the hallway in a house and was run by two sisters - it had the most incredible smell - still in the memory bank - and we used to invent stories that the two sisters were actually witches and we wouldn't go in the shop on our own in case they grabbed us! As I grew older I realised that they were just old ladies in a wonderful old house.
We used to walk along the narrow Belhaven streets past the Manor House. Both my mother and sister worked there at various times as kitchenhands/maids/etc. As kids we used to make up stories about that house too - about what went on behind the very high walls. We also used to target several gardens which had apple trees - making sure we had something to eat at the beach.
In winter I would walk the dog along the water's edge and up along the edge of the golf course. One year in the early 60's it was so cold the water's edge had actually frozen!
Do they still train racehorses over at the 'white horses'? As an avid horse lover I would wander over to watch Mr Boyd training a string of about 10 - 20 thoroughbreds. What a sight!
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