Town in The Lothians, Scotland
North Berwick
A Scottish king blamed the town's witches for a storm that nearly sank his ship. Now North Berwick is known for golf, gannets and a hilltop whale jawbone.
Key information
- County
- The Lothians
- Nation
- Scotland
- Known for
- Golf, Bass Rock gannets, the 1590s witch trials, the Law and Tantallon Castle
- Famous people
- Robert Louis Stevenson (holidayed here), James VI, Agnes Sampson, Archibald 'Bell-the-Cat' Douglas
About North Berwick
The king, the storm and the witches of North Berwick
In 1590 James VI sailed home from Denmark with his new queen, Anne, and ran into fierce storms. Back in Scotland, he became convinced the weather had been conjured on purpose. The suspects were put through one of the most notorious witch trials in Scottish history. The accused were said to have gathered at the old kirk by the shore at North Berwick, where the Devil himself supposedly preached to them. Among them were the midwife Agnes Sampson, Geillis Duncan and the schoolmaster Dr John Fian. The king took a personal interest in the interrogations. Later he wrote a book on demonology, so the story of one seaside town helped shape how Britain thought about witchcraft. The ruined church by the harbour is still the place where the story is told.
A rock that turns white every summer
Look out to sea and you'll see Bass Rock, a great lump of volcanic stone that looks as though someone has whitewashed it. Its striking white appearance comes mainly from the densely packed white gannets covering it, with their droppings also contributing. Bass Rock was estimated to host about 150,000 northern gannets in 2014, before major losses during the 2022 avian-flu outbreak, which made it the largest colony of the species on a single rock island anywhere. The gannet's scientific name, Morus bassanus, nods to the place. The rock has had other lives. It served as a prison for Covenanters in the 1600s, and a handful of Jacobite prisoners seized it and held out until 1694. A lighthouse followed in 1902. You don't need a boat to watch the birds. The Scottish Seabird Centre, on the waterfront, has live cameras trained on the colony and opened in 2000.
The whale jawbone on top of the Law
North Berwick Law rises about 187 metres from the flat farmland behind the town. It's the plug of an ancient volcano, and you can see it from miles around. The summit has two odd features. One is a whale jawbone arch, a tradition on this hill for generations. The present one is a replica installed in 2008. The other is the ruined stonework of a Second World War lookout post. The view is a good one, taking in the Forth, Bass Rock, Fife and on a clear day the distant hills.
Tantallon and the castle that wouldn't quit
A few miles east, Tantallon Castle stands on a cliff edge with the sea on three sides. It was a stronghold of the Douglas earls of Angus, whose most famous member, Archibald 'Bell-the-Cat', gets his nickname from a fable about mice deciding who would put a bell on the cat. The castle was built to be hard to attack and mostly was. It fell in 1651 after Cromwell's army battered it with artillery, and it was never lived in properly again. The great curtain wall still stands high above the waves, with Bass Rock framed in the view behind it.
Why Edinburgh's Victorians called it the Biarritz of the North
The railway reached North Berwick in 1850, and the town changed almost overnight. Edinburgh families came for sea air, sandy beaches and tidal pools, and big villas went up along the shore. The nickname 'Biarritz of the North' followed. Robert Louis Stevenson spent boyhood holidays here. The small island of Fidra, with its lighthouse, is often said to have inspired Treasure Island, and Bass Rock appears in his novel Catriona. Golf was a big draw then and still is. The West Links is among the oldest and best-loved courses in the world. Its 15th hole, the Redan, has been copied on courses across the globe. The town's compact harbour also lands lobster and crab, and local seafood is a menu staple. Every August the Fringe by the Sea festival brings music, comedy and theatre to the seafront.