Town in Angus, Scotland
Arbroath
In 1951 the Stone of Destiny turned up on Arbroath Abbey's high altar, and the town is also home to a world-famous smoked haddock and a football ground you can hit the sea from.
Key information
- County
- Angus
- Nation
- Scotland
- Population
- about 23,900 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- Arbroath Abbey, the Declaration of Arbroath, Arbroath smokies, the Bell Rock Lighthouse link
- Famous people
- William the Lion, Robert Stevenson, Cardinal David Beaton
- Football clubs
- Arbroath FC (Gayfield Park)
About Arbroath
The night the Stone of Destiny came to town
On Christmas Day 1950, four students removed the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey. Months later, in April 1951, it was left on the high altar of Arbroath Abbey, where it was found and returned to the authorities. The choice of venue was no accident. Arbroath's abbey is bound up with Scotland's sense of itself, and the ruined red sandstone church made a fitting place to hand a stolen national symbol back to the world. The abbey was founded in 1178 by William the Lion, who dedicated it to Thomas Becket, the archbishop murdered at Canterbury only a few years before. William was buried before its altar in 1214.
The letter that put Scotland's case to the Pope
In 1320 a letter was sent to Pope John XXII on behalf of the Scottish nobility, asserting that Scotland was an independent kingdom and that Robert the Bruce was its king. It is known as the Declaration of Arbroath, though the abbey's link to it is through its abbot, Bernard, who served as chancellor and is often credited as its likely author. The letter has become one of the most quoted documents in Scottish history, and its words about freedom are recited well beyond Angus. The town has staged historical pageants in the abbey grounds to bring the story back to life. The abbey's own claim to fame includes a last act of drama. Its final abbot, Cardinal David Beaton, was a powerful churchman who died in 1546 at St Andrews, just before the Reformation swept the old order away.
Smokies, born in a fishing village up the coast
The Arbroath smokie is a haddock, salted, tied in pairs and hot-smoked over hardwood in barrels. The result is cooked, golden-bronze and ready to eat with a knob of butter and some bread. The method is traditionally linked to Auchmithie, the clifftop fishing village a few miles up the coast, where fishing families smoked their catch. Many of them moved to Arbroath's Fit o' the Toon, the old fishing quarter by the harbour, and took the craft with them. In 2004 the smokie earned protected geographical status, meaning the real thing must be made in the Arbroath area by the traditional method. Smokie smokers still work there, and the smell of woodsmoke drifts over the harbour.
A lighthouse built on a rock that vanishes under the sea
Eleven miles off the coast lies the Inchcape Rock, a reef that sailors knew as the Bell Rock, which is covered at high tide. The Bell Rock Lighthouse was built on it between 1807 and 1810 under Robert Stevenson, who developed the design, with John Rennie involved as consulting engineer. It is the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse. Arbroath was the shore base for the work, and the Signal Tower by the harbour was built to house the keepers' families and send messages to the rock. It is now a museum telling the story. Legend adds another layer. A medieval abbot of Arbroath is said to have placed a bell on the reef to warn ships. A pirate, Sir Ralph the Rover, cut it away and later wrecked on the same rock. Robert Southey turned the tale into a famous poem.
Cliffs, caves and the Red Lichties
North of the harbour the coast turns into red sandstone cliffs, with arches, stacks and sea caves. The Seaton Cliffs path is a favourite walk, with seabirds wheeling above and the North Sea below. The town's nickname, the Red Lichties, is said to come from the red lights that once guided fishing boats into harbour. Locals are Arbroathians, and the nickname is also stuck to the football club. Flax and sailcloth mills once drove the town's economy alongside fishing, which gave Arbroath a solid, working-harbour character that it keeps today.
The football ground by the sea, and the 36–0 scoreline
Arbroath FC play at Gayfield Park, which sits so close to the water that the North Sea is right behind one end. Fans joke that lofted clearances can end up in the waves. It is among the closest senior grounds to the sea in the country. On 12 September 1885, Arbroath beat Bon Accord 36–0 in the Scottish Cup, still a record winning margin in Scottish senior football. The same afternoon, Dundee Harp beat Aberdeen Rovers 35–0 in the same competition. The club's nickname, the Red Lichties, matches the town's, and Gayfield remains the heart of its sporting life.