| Cockburnspath & Cove: Gateway between the
East March and the Lothians |
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Cockburnspath
is the one of the fastest growing community council areas
and is the most northerly, in all of the Scottish Borders. Our area is
situated astride the A1 and the East Coast Mainline, at the boundary with
East Lothian. |
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Between 1991 and 2001, the population of the area
increased by 27% from 574 to 729, compared to an average of 1% for Scotland.
We now have a younger age profile than the Scottish Borders as a whole. By
2011, following upgrade of the A1 between Edinburgh and Dunbar, we
anticipate that the population will have increased by as much as 60% since
the Census in 1991 to in excess of 900. |
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The area, set on the beautiful Berwickshire Coast, has a mixture of
productive arable land and hill farming, while the area is a popular holiday
destination, with many surfers regularly visiting the private beach at Pease
Bay Holiday Park. Appropriately, given the community name, Cockburnspath is
the centre of a number of excellent walks, and is the eastern terminus of
the long distance pathway, the Southern Upland Way, while the area contains
a number of SSSIs and a Scottish Wildlife Trust nature reserve at Pease
Dean..
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The main population centre is the village of
Cockburnspath, which is some 13 miles north west of Eyemouth, 14 miles
north of Duns and 22 miles northwest of Berwick-upon-Tweed. The village is
a Burgh of Barony which used to convey the right to hold markets in what has
become The Square, upon which the conservation area is centred, due to the
listed buildings /monuments in its vicinity. |
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Cockburnspath was initially known as Kolbrand’s Path in the dark ages, and
is known locally known as Co'path. The name derives from the number of
steep-sided wooded deans which are the main characteristic of the coastal
part of the area, which used to convey great strategic significance to
whoever owned the lands, although the deans have now been tamed by the road
and rail bridges we use today. The village contains approximately 500 of
the total population of the community area, an active Parish church, an
excellent, growing primary school ( more than 90 pupils) and a recently
completed village hall built with the aid of a £288,511 grant from the
National Lottery, while funds are being raised to build a community managed
Pub. Click here
for more information on Cockburnspath. |
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Cove
The community of Cove, initially "Quhyte Cove" or
White Cove, is the largest of the outlying settlements, with a population of
45, although with just under half the properties used as second homes or for
holiday letting, this can rise considerably in the Summer months. The area
lies approximately ¾ of a mile from Cockburnspath. |
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The community is centred around the local farm and the
planned hamlet built, from the 19th century onwards, by the Halls of Dunglass,
for tenant fisher-folk, who used what was a natural harbour.
The hamlet is a good example of a "heugh-held"
(cliff-top) settlement and overlooks Lidster's Bay, an SSSI. |
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Between 1831 and 1834, Lady Hall of Dunglass paid for construction of a
purpose built harbour in a cove below the hamlet, reached by way of a
tunnel, to capitalise on the rich catches of herring and mackerel. However,
following decline in herring fishing and the loss of 12 fishermen from Cove,
principally from three families, in the great fishing disaster of 1881, by
2004, just two in-shore lobster/crab boats still use the harbour and today
the harbour is privately owned by Cove Harbour Conservation Ltd, which uses
the film rights from use of the relatively untouched harbour to fund
maintenance to the category A-listed harbour walls and cottages. Cove has
also played host to a notable colony of artists, including Sir James Guthrie
and the ‘Glasgow Boys’.
Click here for more information
on Cove. |
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Other
communities within the area are the farms and small hamlets at Old Cambus,
Redheugh, Pathhead, Ecclaw, Hoprig, Tower Farm and at Pease / Linhead.
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