Cove Harbour in the Spring and daffodils on the Dunglass Estate

Looking at my blog post, it is 3 years since we last visited the harbour at Cove (history) which is 9 miles/14.5k along the coast from Dunbar. We have never been down to Cove a) in the spring and b) when the tide is fully in. There were quite few gatherings of daffodils and primroses on the slope going down to the sea, as we walked towards the harbour, passing the dark tunnel which takes you to the beach and the holiday accommodation there. The photo below shows the harbour and the beach, looking down from the path. The rockface on the right hides the exit from the tunnel below. In the enlarged photo, you will see how the high, rocky slopes sweep down to the water and, if the wind is in the west or southwest, they provide shelter for the beach. When the tide is out, the beach extends across to the little harbour. The holiday accommodation is at the bottom left of the picture. On our last visit, a firm of plumbers was barrowing material through the tunnel and along to the holiday house – a strange sight.

High tide at Cove harbour

There are still some creel boats which fish out of Cove Harbour and the photo below shows one of them on the water, looking back from the piers. Behind the boat, you can see quite a large cave and when the tide is out, even a bit, you can walk inside the cave and admire the sandstone – see video below. On the rockface, you can see the many layers of sandstone, an unusual geological structure. This walking site tells us that the Cove path is also following the route of part of the James Hutton Walk. James Hutton was an 18th century physician and geologist renowned for coming up with the modern day theories of geology and deep time. This part of the coast was instrumental in forming some of his ideas as he saw bands of different ages of rock sandwiched between each other and exposed at the base of the cliffs which made him realise the earth was much much older than people had previously thought. You can read more about James Hutton, who challenged the establishment and particularly the religious part of it, here.

Boat and cave a Cove harbour

The harbour itself (photo below) features two piers, one of which you can see here. At the end of the pier, there is a set of steps and if you climb these, you get views out to sea and along the coast, past the sloping rockfaces and some standalone rock structures, one of which has a cave which is open at both ends. The stone path along to the steps is quite narrow, but the fisherman in the boat on the right, to whom we talked, had reversed his car along to the side of the boat. When we asked about this, he said that it was more hazardous in the winter dark at 6am! The larger boat is the Rachel May and this boat can go further out to sea than its neighbour in search of lobsters, crabs and langoustines. Neil, the owner of this boat, lost many creels in the storms of last autumn, as did many of the fishermen at Dunbar harbour. Some of the lobsters landed at Cove and Dunbar, are kept alive in special boxes in the harbour and then transported to Europe. In some cases, lobsters from this area end up being served in Japanese restaurants, where customers can pay over £200 for a lobster. This is obviously environmentally questionable.

Cove harbour and piers

I took this video 3 years ago, when the tide was out.

The Dunglass Estate, now a wedding venue, is not far from Cove Harbour. My colleague at Dunbar and District History Society, Dr Pat Simpson, has done research on the estate and you can see some of the slides (with text) from a talk she gave to the Society here. We have been to Dunglass before but, as with Cove, never in the Spring, so it was a very pleasant surprise to see the plethora of daffodils around the estate. The photo below shows one group of daffodils in front of the historic church – now a ruin but one you can walk through. The Collegiate Church has a long history, dating back to the 1440s and has some fine sandstone carvings inside. There are also many mature trees on the estate and you can see some of these – as yet leafless – on either side of the church.

Daffodils and Dunglass chapel

The estate includes large areas of farmland and the photo below shows – behind the daffodils – a field with sheep in it. The estate looks out to the north sea and in the enlarged photo, you can see a buzzard which is floating above the sheep and no doubt searching for food. The Woodland Trust (good photos) tells us that Buzzards are opportunistic predators and can take a wide variety of prey. Small rodents such as voles and mice are commonly eaten, but they can also take prey as large as rabbits or as small as earthworms. They will also scavenge on road kill. This flexible diet allows the buzzard to survive in a variety of habitats. It was a very pleasant walk around the estate, passing sheep and lambs in the field and going behind the wedding venue to a vast area of daffodils stretching across a whole hillside. If you are in the Dunbar area, put Dunglass estate on your list of nearby places to visit and you won’t be disappointed.

Dunglass estate looking out to the north sea

Tags: buzzards, cliffs, collegiate church, Cove harbour, creel boats, daffodils, Dunglass Estate, history society, James Hutton, Japan, lambs, lobsters, pirs, Rachel May, rockface, sandstone, sheep, tunnel, Woodland Trust, youtube video