Tour Thee Scotland: Eyemouth
February 2022
Explore Scotland:
This year we have decided it was time to do a tour of Scotland that I have dubbed as “Tour Thee Scotland” to explore more parts of Scotland.
Having lived in Scotland for nearly 40 years, I must admit that we have not yet seen enough of Scotland, which is a little sad since we have lived here for so long but not seen as much of Scotland as we should. We have travelled further to see other countries such as Spain, Portugal, Turkey and so on. As it turns out, we are not alone. I have spoken to many people over the years who have also never explored Scotland and they too have also visited other countries.
Most of the people I have spoken to have only travelled to the usual locations in Scotland; Glasgow, Edinburgh, Ayrshire, Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire.
Eyemouth
On the remaining days of December 2021 I opened up google maps and navigated along the borders between Scotland and England to find our starting point which was Eyemouth.
On starting our tour and deciding where is best to start from we discovered Eyemouth was located just before the English borders. In all honesty, up until that moment I had never heard of Eyemouth and turns out a few others hadn’t heard of Eyemouth either. Some people thought we had planned to go to a town in England.
Journey to Eyemouth
I used my IPhone maps as a navigation device to get us started with our journey to Eyemouth. The map estimated a 2 hour drive from our town in Clydebank to Eyemouth.
The journey to Eyemouth was an easy drive with the route taking us along the M8 motorway all the way to Edinburgh then following the route A720 along to A1 and heading towards Berwick Upon Tweed. I would like to advise that for majority of this journey there where no signs for Eyemouth. Thankfully using the navigation map on the IPhone we got to route A1. A good distance along the signs for Eyemouth started to appear.
The scenery along M8 to Edinburgh, A720 and A1 route towards Berwick Upon Tweed was delightful, very much so and we would like to visit these locations some time. There are many hills and locations to go long walks and plenty of picturesque locations.
Somewhere along the A1 a section of road was closed off – we didn’t find out exactly why. We followed the diverted route through farming roads that zig-zagged and these roads where extremely tight. We did think that there was an accident at different parts throughout the farming roads because it was taking too long to move, but it turned out that was due to the roads being so narrow. The cars on each side where trying to let each other through.
Once we got passed the diverted route and back onto the A1 our journey to Eyemouth was plain sailing.
Arriving at Eyemouth
Arriving at Eyemouth was nice and easy, the harbour area of Eyemouth has a one-way driving system. We had to drive around a second time as we where looking at all the shops, cafes, bakeries, pubs and restaurants on the High Street that made us miss the parking area.
Eyemouth is a small town, so looping around wasn’t an inconvenience and took less than 5 minutes to get parking. We parked up outside a restaurant called The Tavern and we went inside for food. The views from the restaurant were spectacular looking out towards the North Sea. We even seen a couple of cargo ships sail past. The staff where friendly and the food was good.
Background Information of Eyemouth
Eyemouth is a small town which has a population of around 3,420 people. It is located 8 miles north of Berwick Upon Tweed.
Wikipedia describes Eyemouth as: its name comes from its location at the mouth of the Eye Water. The Berwickshire coastline consists of high cliffs over deep water with sandy coves and picturesque harbours. It has a notable building in the town called Gunsgreen House.
The history of Eyemouth is really interesting and worth a read.
Eyemouth has many bars, restaurants, cafes, hotels, B&Bs and a holiday park which over looks Eyemouth from a hilltop.
Seeing the seals in the water was a highlight of our trip as I’ve never seen seals in open water like this. Eyemouth harbour has a stall where you can feed the seals. They look like giant water dogs.
Stunning Views
Eyemouth itself offers many stunning views. Eyemouth Holiday Park sits up on the hill, over looking Eyemouth and its harbour. I imagine you can also see far out to sea in all directions. Eyemouth Holiday Park offers accommodation to rent. We never climbed up the hill this time, but next time we will definitely climb up to see the views. We continued our walk round to the harbour and the surrounding area of the harbour. Round to the right of the harbour is Eyemouth golf course. This section gives you a look over to the beach as well as Eyemouth harbour, surrounding areas and out to sea.
Still to see:
We still have many things to see in Eyemouth. As such, our next visit will be to find accommodation to stay then to try a new restaurant and possibly do a crawl to the other pubs and restaurants. The hopes is to experience more of Eyemouth as well as seeing what Eyemouth offers in entertainment.
Accommodation:
Our search for accommodation has brought up the following choices:
I think, I’d like us to stay in the holiday home so that we are at the top of the hill over looking everywhere.
Pubs and Restaurants:
- The Contented Sole
- The Fleet
- The Ship
- Oblo Bar
And some of the cafes and the fish and chip shop.
Eyemouth Gallery
Entertaining Eyemouth
As described earlier in this article our aim is to explore Scotland, since we haven’t done so in all our years living in Scotland. The other reason is for my project Performersofscotland.com.
Scotland has many great Performing Artists, as well as drawing, writing and any other forms of art, which never gets seen. So, starting with Eyemouth I want to see what kind of entertainment Eyemouth has to offer by visiting the different pubs and restaurants.
When we where eating in The Tavern restaurant, we noticed the restaurant has a section for entertaining. After some research on the other restaurants and pubs in the Eyemouth area, there are a couple that also offer live entertainment.
So, for anyone reading this, if you are looking for a place to perform, why not speak to these locations in advance and arrange to go through (2 hour drive or less) and perform live to our neighbours in Eyemouth and gain additional fans.
