Local Area Information

There are numerous countryside and cliff top walks in the immediate area. We are less than 0.5 mls from Coldingham village and 1.5  miles from Coldingham Sands and St Abbs village. The village has bars, restaurants, a butchers, post office and a village shop.

We are 10 mins from Eyemouth with more shops including a supermarket, 15 Minutes from historic Berwick-Upon-Tweed (and Berwick train station), 40 minutes from Kelso and 1 hour from Edinburgh. Local lochs and rivers for both coarse and fly fishing. 
Ideally situated for walkers, cyclists, divers, beachcombers, families and lovers of peace and quiet.

Less than 2 miles from the world renowned diving grounds of St Abbs and the National Trust Nature Reserve at St Abbs Head. 

The Berwickshire sea cliffs are the highest and grandest along the east coast of mainland Britain. From St Abb's Head, you can observe vast numbers of cliff-nesting seabirds and sometimes whales, dolphins, porpoises and seals. St Abbs Head  Nature Reserve, with 100m high cliffs, offers a spectacular walk down the coast to Eyemouth, a busy fishing town.

Coldingham

Coldingham lies just under a mile inland from the North Sea coast of Scotland, and just under ten miles from the English Border. It sits astride the A1107, which provides a more scenic alternative to the A1 for visitors driving up through the Borders via Eyemouth

This picture postcard village has an unusually ancient history, and one that is unusually closely tied with England. This even extends to its very English-sounding name. Some have suggested that this comes from the Old English for "village of the people of Colud", presumably a reference to an early laird.

An alternative view, that Coldingham was actually referred to on Ptolemy's Roman map of Britain as Colania, has found a following, but overlooks the distance that settlement is marked as being from the sea. Alternative views that Colania became Lanark or Crawford seem more likely.

What is beyond doubt is that Coldingham was established at a very early date. A monastery was founded two miles to the north in 635, open to both monks and nuns by a Northumbrian Princess called Aebbe. She later became a saint, St Aebbe. In 683 fire largely destroyed the monastery. At the time some held this to be divine retribution for what was, perhaps euphemistically, called "disorderly behaviour" among the monks and nuns. Whatever the truth of this, the monastery may have been rebuilt on the same site before being destroyed by Vikings in 870.

Coldingham's story closely reflected that of the monastery here, and the priory that followed it, on a different site in what is now the village of Coldingham, from 1098. The village grew alongside the priory from the 1100s until the Reformation in 1560. This was despite attacks by invading English armies in 1216, 1537 and 1547, and despite a fire raised at the priory by its own prior, William Drax, in 1430. This was, allegedly, an attempt by him to conceal his theft of a large amount of money being carried by a messenger from the Scottish King to the English King.

Even the Reformation in 1560 and the Union of the Crowns of Scotland in 1603 did not end the priory's role as an attractor of trouble for the village. In 1650, troops opposing Cromwell were positioned in the priory to block his advance into Scotland. After a two day siege by Cromwell's artillery the village and its priory were badly in need of rebuilding. One result is the local saying that there isn't an old building in the village that doesn't contain stone removed from the ruins of the priory.

Coldingham is well worth spending a little time in. The remains of the priory are especially worth visiting, and if you do nothing more, make sure you stroll along the lovely High Street, and pop into the "Coldingham Luckenbooth", an attractive cafe/shop/information point/post office near the entrance to the priory.

The Scottish Borders region

Covering about eighteen hundred square miles, the Scottish Borders stretches from the rolling hills and moorland in the west, through gentler valleys to the high agricultural plains of the east, and on to the rocky Berwickshire coastline with its secluded coves and picturesque fishing villages.

In the bright spring months, fresh new growth fills the valleys and forests of the Scottish Borders. Enjoy time to spare with the lure of lighter longer summer days or relax in more mellow shades of autumn when mauves and purples tint the moors. Crunch through the crisp frosts of winter, when early morning mist floats over the lowlands, and the snow capped hills sparkle in the distance. Land and sea, hills and moorland all sit happily side by side. Rivers and paths wind their way through untouched natural beauty whilst the more gentle pace of life subtly relaxes and revives you. Seasonal changes await to delight, every day at every turn.