Coast and Castles - July 2025 - The Scottish Borders

It was a steep and very enjoyable descent down into Eyemouth. As I had quipped earlier to some friends I find that I cope with half of the hills really quite easily. The other half tend to be more challenging... There had been sections of the ascent to the border marker where I'd simply had to get off and push, itself quite hard going with a heavily loaded bike. Going down hills this extra weight on the bike, and other - ahem - extra weight, meant that I attained considerable speed, passing Mrs L and her lighter, er, panniers quite easily. She's a maths teacher and tried to explain gravitational potential energy to me but basically my bike is just faster.

If my Tyne and Wear list was pathetic you should see my Scottish Borders list. Four species. Four! Crow, Rook, Woodpigeon and LBB from some random list on the A68 near Jedburgh. I suspect I was just trying to colour in the map as I went through. The trip had been tweaked specifically to allow more time here, including a crack at St Abb's Head. So as soon as we reached the border at Mordington I was off and away, recording 22 species along about three miles of the CR76 down into Ayton.

Eyemouth

At Eyemouth we settled into our accomodation above the Ship Inn - recommended and they even have a bike store - and went for a walk along the beach and up onto the headland from where you could see St Abb's Head about four miles distant. Seabird traffic was light, but I still picked up Guillemot, Kittiwake and Gannet passing. By the end of the day the Scottish Borders was a lot healthier on 39. We had dinner outside at the Ship, watched attentively by a Herring Gull (#6). I had a shellfish bonanza, Mrs L a sweet potato curry - at last something approaching proper food.

St Abb's Head from Eyemouth

Herring Gull

I had been vacillitating about whether or not to visit St Abb's Head. It was late in the season, most birds would be gone, it was out of our way and most annoyingly it was a bloody great hill. Having come this far though we decided to do it. We cycled to the far end of Mire Loch and then I ditched the bike and walked the rest of the way up to the lighthouse, abandoning Mrs L to brake repairs, tea and the continued knitting of socks. She hates being on bird cliffs with me and would rather I fell off without her seeing. It was indeed quite quiet up there, with only a handful of Guillemot left on nests. The most abundant bird was Kittiwake, the colony seemed to be in full swing still, and there were plenty of Gannet. It took forever to find a Razorbill on the sea, and with only binoculars my tactic was to find a dot and then take a picture of it with my camera. I've invested in a very small yet very powerful zoom lens, the Sony E 70-350mm f4.5-6.3 G. On the APS-C body that I have this works out at 525mm in real terms, which given it's the size of a can of drink is really quite something. Once said dot is located, which itself is quite hard on a featureless sea, I can then zoom in on the photo and separate one auk from another. Perfect, if rather a faff. I couldn't find a Puffin, and it was lucky I'd seen a Fulmar fly past at Eyemouth on the way out as I couldn't find one of them either. HMS Queen Elizabeth was rather easier. My allotted hour passed all too quickly and I made my way back to the bikes.

Mire Loch held a few Tufted Duck, Mallard, Coot and Mute Swan, some Greylag flew over, and the woods at the start of the approach road had calling Nuthatch and Song Thrush. Meanwhile Meadow Pipit, Swallow and House Martin were everywhere, Stonechat were in the gorse, and a family of Peregrine zoomed around. 49 for the Borders, soon up to 50 with a Greenfinch at Coldingham.

Stonechat

Meadow Pipit

The Bass Rock dominates everything for miles around

I added Buzzard and Dunnock and Headchesters just before lunch, and then we had the mother of all descents into Pease Bay which is just south of Torness. Good thing Mrs L had sorted out my brakes otherwise I might now be writing this from the North Sea. We stopped for coffee, a Whitethroat and a Sedge Warbler here. The route then goes alongside the A1, past the power station, and then cuts across to track a bit closer to the sea whilst going through a quarry and cement plant, from where a proper cycle track starts. But of course this is now East Lothian.

Looking down towards Torness