St Abbs is a small fishing village on the southeastern coast of Scotland, within the Coldingham parish of Scottish Borders.
The village was originally known as Coldingham Shore, the name St Abbs being adopted in the 1890s. The new name was derived from St Abb's Head, a rocky promontory located to the north of the village, itself named after the 7th-century saint Æbbe of Coldingham.
St Abbs was originally called Coldingham Shore. Prior to any buildings the fishermen who worked their boats from the beach resided at Fisher's Brae in Coldingham. These fishermen had to carry their fishing gear one and a half miles down a path to where their fishing vessels were tied up. The path is now known as the Creel Path; creel is the local name for a lobster pot.
The first building in St Abbs was constructed in about the middle of the 18th century followed later by a row of five cottages. This first row of houses was constructed in a traditional Scottish style with a central fire and a wide chimney. The walls were constructed of "clat and clay," a framework of wood interlaced with straw and daubed with moist clay.
By 1832 it is recorded that the inhabitants of the Shore comprised 16 families who, with 20 others residing in Coldingham, made their living by fishing. In addition to these residents, 30 people proceeded annually to the north for the herring fishing, which provided employment for 14 boats from the village.
The village was renamed at the end of the 19th century by the then-laird, Andrew Usher, who played a major role in improving the fishing village and harbour. [1] Usher purchased the Northfield estate on the edge of the village, enlarging and finishing the building of a countryside manor by the coastal shore in 1892. [1] He considered the local public hall inadequate and subsequently funded a new village hall and school, which was constructed in 1887 and is now occupied by the St Abbs visitor centre. [1] Usher also gave funds for the building of the local church in 1892 and the extension of the outer harbour wall in 1890. [1]
Local boarding house owner Isabel Cowe campaigned for St Abbs to have its own lifeboat. [2] In November 1907 the Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwickshire, Harold Tennant, announced that the Royal National Lifeboat Society had agreed to supply St Abbs with a lifeboat, and that the Board of Trade had also agreed to place life-saving apparatus at St Abbs as soon as possible. [3]
On 5 September 1914, HMS Pathfinder was sunk off St Abbs Head by the German U-21 , the first Royal Navy ship to be sunk by a U-boat.
St Abbs was the main subject of the book, Ebb Tide: Adrift on the Waves of Memory With the Fisher Folk of Berwickshire, by Will Wilson.
St Abbs is a popular site for scuba divers. The sea around the village is unusually clear, in contrast to the more silt-laden coastal waters further to the north or south. These clear waters and the spectacular underwater scenery resulted in Britain's first Voluntary Marine Reserve being established at St Abbs. The Marine Reserve was established on 18 August 1984 by David Bellamy.
Shore diving to a depth of about 15 metres is possible from the rocks on the outside of the harbour wall. It is common for trainees to do initial sea dives here.
The double archway at "Cathedral Rock" is just 50 metres from the shore. [4] [5] Several small, nearby rocky islands, such as "Big Green Carr", "Broad Craig" and "Little Carr" are near to the harbour and can be easily circumnavigated underwater. [6]
A new visitor centre was opened in St Abbs in March 2011. [7] The centre is located in the former village hall, which was built in 1897 with funds made available by the whisky tycoon Andrew Usher. [7]
St Abbs has its own privately funded and independent Lifeboat Station. [8] The lifeboat station was originally established in 1911 following the sinking of the S.S. Alfred Erlandsen. [9] The station was previously operated by the RNLI but following its closure in 2015, a local fundraising effort saw the station saved through public donations and generous funding from the Tunnock's bakery company. The station was reopened and the new boat launched on 17 September 2016. [8]
The village also features in the 2019 superhero film Avengers: Endgame as the location of New Asgard, a town settled by the surviving Asgardians and led by Thor. Following the film's release, the village saw a surge in tourism and popularity. The village sign has also been modified to say the village is twinned with New Asgard. [10] [11]
In 2019, St Abbs featured as the "Isle of Eroda" in the music video of Harry Styles' single "Adore You". [12]
Signs have been erected throughout the village declaring that it has been twinned with "New Asgard", as it was the location of filming in Avengers: Endgame . [11] It also has been twinned with "Eroda", a fictitious island created by Harry Styles for his video Adore you (Harry Styles song). [13]
Sheringham is a seaside town and civil parish in the county of Norfolk, England. The motto of the town, granted in 1953 to the Sheringham Urban District Council, is Mare Ditat Pinusque Decorat, Latin for "The sea enriches and the pine adorns".
Gairloch is a village, civil parish and community on the shores of Loch Gairloch in Wester Ross, in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. A tourist destination in the summer months, Gairloch has a golf course, a museum, several hotels, a variety of shops, takeaway restaurants, a community centre, a leisure centre with sports facilities, a local radio station, beaches and nearby mountains. Gairloch is one of the principal villages on the North Coast 500 route.
Eyemouth is a small town and civil parish in Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. It is two miles east of the main north–south A1 road and eight miles north of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Isle of Whithorn is one of the most southerly villages and seaports in Scotland, lying on the coast north east of Burrow Head, about three miles from Whithorn and about thirteen miles south of Wigtown in Dumfries and Galloway. Whithorn,, is a former royal burgh in Wigtownshire, Dumfries and Galloway, with which Isle of Whithorn is frequently incorrectly amalgamated or confused. It is referred to locally as 'The Isle' - never 'the Isle of Whithorn'.
Dunmore East is a popular tourist and fishing village in County Waterford, Ireland. Situated on the west side of Waterford Harbour on Ireland's southeastern coast, it lies within the barony of Gaultier ; a reference to the influx of Viking and Norman settlers in the area.
St Abb's Head is a rocky promontory by the village of St Abbs in Scottish Borders, Scotland, and a national nature reserve administered by the National Trust for Scotland. St Abb's Head Lighthouse was designed and built by the brothers David Stevenson and Thomas Stevenson and began service on 24 February 1862.
Rye Harbour is a village located on the East Sussex coast in southeast England, near the estuary of the River Rother: it is part of the civil parish of Icklesham and the Rother district. Rye Harbour is located some two miles (3.2 km) downstream of the town of Rye.
Coldingham is a village and parish in Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders. It lies a short distance inland from Coldingham Bay, three miles northeast of the fishing village of Eyemouth.
Groomsport is a suburb of Bangor in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the south shore of Belfast Lough and on the north coast of the Ards Peninsula. Groomsport has a population of 3,005 people according to the 2011 Census. It is part of the Ards and North Down Borough.
Coverack is a coastal village and fishing port in Cornwall, UK. It lies in the parish of St Keverne, on the east side of the Lizard peninsula about nine miles (14 km) south of Falmouth.
Andrew Usher II was a Scottish whisky distiller and blender.
Whitehills is a small fishing village in Banffshire, Scotland, that lies three miles west of Banff on the Moray Firth. It forms part of the Aberdeenshire council area.
Coldingham Bay is an inlet in the North Sea coast, just over three kilometres north of the town of Eyemouth in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. It is situated at grid reference NT918666 and is easily reached by a minor road which leaves the B6438 road at Coldingham.
The Augusta was a private lifeboat which was stationed in the town of Sheringham in the English county of Norfolk She was launched on 14 November 1838 and stayed on station for 56 years until she was retired from service in 1894 after an inspection declared her to be unseaworthy.
NCI Froward Point is a National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) lookout station at Inner Froward Point, at the easterly side of the mouth of the River Dart, two miles by coastal path from Kingswear in Devon, England. Its twin duties are to maintain a daylight watch over the local coastal area and the South West Coast Path on whose route it lies. With some significant blind spots because of the coastline, NCI Froward Point covers the coastline from Start Point in the West towards Brixham in the East.
St Abbs Lifeboat is an independent marine-rescue facility in St Abbs, Berwickshire, Scotland.
The Berwickshire Coastal Path is a walking route some 48 kilometres (30 mi) long. It follows the eastern coastline of Scotland from Cockburnspath in the Scottish Borders to Berwick upon Tweed, just over the border in England. At Cockburnspath the path links with the Southern Upland Way and the John Muir Way.
Jane Hay was a Scottish philanthropist and campaigner. She was elected to the Edinburgh Parish Council in 1895 and campaigned to improve the lives of poor children in the city.
Isabel Cowe was a Scottish suffragist, campaigner for the local Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and boarding house owner. She was nicknamed the "Provost of St Abbs".
55°53′53″N2°07′52″W / 55.898°N 2.131°W
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