Lower Burnmouth and The Old Lobster House
Burnmouth is the last village on Scotland’s east coast before crossing the border into England. It’s also one of those divided villages with a steep, winding road down to the harbour. We booked a cottage in Lower Burnmouth for a week last July / August, and I was surprised to find that the small settlement around the harbour actually counts as four villages!
If you turn left at the bottom of the road, you end up in Partanhall.
Ahead is Burnmouth Harbour.
To the right is Lower Burnmouth (and beyond that, Ross and Cowdrait of which we have no pictures). The colourful 3 storey houses, numbers 14-20 Lower Burnmouth, were designed by the architect Basil Spence in the 1950s. The lower floors were intended to be net stores, but now serve as garages. The little white building to their left in the view from the harbour is The Old Lobster House, our home for the week, a cottage converted from an old lobster holding pen.
Here are some closer views of the exterior:
And the interior:
But what had really sold us on this cottage when we saw it online was this view from the main bedroom window:
However, when we arrived we were very disappointed to find that it looked like this:
It would be some days before high tide was at a suitable time for us to see it, i.e. not while we were out during the day or while we slept. However, we found the view endlessly fascinating and have many pictures in different conditions of weather and tide. Here’s more from the main bedroom:
From bedroom 2:
And from downstairs:
We had a wonderful week in this cottage, and did far more than just gaze at the sea, mesmerising though that was. And we learned something too. Strolling round the harbour on our first evening, we came across this sculpture:
It’s one part of a memorial to the East Coast Fishing Disaster of 1881, of which we’d never heard, and we made it our mission to track down the other three sculptures. The whole of my next post will be dedicated to the disaster.
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
I like the look of the cottage but am concerned about the safety of the car parked net to it if there was a heavy tide, is there other safe parking nearby?
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Thanks, it was a very pretty place to stay. That was our car and we’d certainly have moved it pronto had there been any danger!
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I love the look of the Old Lobster House – what a wonderful base for your stay. Love the decor – it’s so cosy and welcoming inside. What a quaint and charming place 🙂
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Yes, it was lovely – but I’m glad I didn’t have to do the dusting!
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This isn’t a place I’ve ever heard of, yet I’ve explored some of that coastline. It looks a very quaint little place, as does the cottage! The cottage itself looks so homely and cosy, I love it!
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It was lovely, Paul. I didn’t Know that part of the coast all that well, so it was good to spend time there.
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Funny that each spot is another town. I love the colourful houses and this place looks a bit windswept and moody. The tide is sure out when you were there but I would be nervous if there was a storm and the tide was in.
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Yeah, I wouldn’t like to be there in winter!
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Your little cottage looks so cozy, even if it was hard to get the advertised view all the time. It sounds like a nice holiday. 🙂
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It was lovely and something I look back on with extreme nostalgia now.
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I can imagine you do!
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I’d much rather have a disappointing view than a disappointing room, and the cottage itself looks lovely!
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The cottage was lovely! It would have been nice if high tide could have been arranged, say, to coincide with breakfast every day, but nature didn’t co-operate 😉. We did see it once by coming home mid-afternoon so I’m not complaining.
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Heard of looking at the tides for a walk, but to check them when booking a place to stay . . .well that’s something else!!!
What a fabulous place. I’d love it, MrB though would struggle with that ceiling in the bedroom.
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We had to make sure we got home mid-afternoon one day to catch high tide. And also, remember to be very careful when sitting up in bed in the morning! I did suffer one or two thwacks because I forgot where I was.
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Glad you did get to see it 🙂 such an amazing experience. There is something mesmerising about watching the tide come in, only though if you are in a safe place!!
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PS 🤕
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😀
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Wow, absolute seafront! This house must get seriously battered by the elements. But so cosy inside. What an interesting spot for a getaway.
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It was lovely while we were there – not sure I’d like it quite so much in winter storms, though it would be spectacular.
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Even though the view was not quite as you’d hoped, that’s still a lovely cottage to spend a vacation in! And I look forward to reading your next post to find out the story behind that sculpture. Someday, when international travel is allowed again, I really want to visit Scotland and see some of the lovely sights you share with us!!!
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We got the view in the end by returning home early one afternoon, it was worth it! The disaster story will be out tomorrow, lockdown has certainly given more time for extra blogging.
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Excellent photographs and a lovely trip. Did look up the Fishing Disaster. Some storm!! Well, not perhaps the sea, but the Spencer Gulf is only a few miles away – at the other end of town.
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It was a lovely trip. Learning about the disaster was quite sobering though.
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I recognise the style of that sculpture from the Windows & Bairns in Eyemouth. I wish I’d had the time to explore the area and history more when we were posted up in Scotland, it just turned out to be such a short spell. I shall explore vicariously via your posts!
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Yes, the Eyemouth one is much bigger, but they are all poignant. We didn’t know Berwickshire very well either, but we love it now.
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All the way through I’d been thinking thank God for people who paint things cheerful colours, because it looked so grey, Anabel… till I got to your cottage. What a nice space 🙂 🙂 And the endless enchantment of sea.
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It was such a pretty cottage! The sea was never your sort of blue, but it went through all sorts of other variations, so it was definitely enchanting.
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Sorry, but I laughed when I saw that first photo of the view. Not quite what you were expecting. Still it was a beautiful location. And that’s a nice log cabin quilt on the bed.
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Not quite, but we got the view in the end!
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What a place to wile away a tranquil hour or two. Love the houses which always remind me of dolls houses. It does look like a place we have visited! Must be the houses that look similar to the coastal village we stopped in. I’m feeling lazy with a cold/sinus to look it up!
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There are a few villages like this along the easy coast in particular where the road dives down a cliff to the harbour. Pennan is probably the most famous because it’s where Local Hero was filmed. Hope your cold improves!
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The lobster house is ultra-charming. Love the door knocker! I would love to spend a week there, exploring the tide pools and villages.
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The owners had put a lot of trouble into themed decoration! It was a lovely week.
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The tides, all over the planet, are one of the most amazing phenomena of all. Day after day this incredible shifting of waters takes place.
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I know! And hours of entertainment.
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That looks very picturesque. I’ve been close to it but never stopped. I wish I had visited now.
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We hardly knew this area it all before, it was lovely.
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What a lovely place to spend some time! I think your view is nice high or low tide… it would be fun to watch the sea go in and out. Was there any exploring or tide pools during low tide?
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Yes, low tide was pretty too, but it was high tide we real loved. It wasn’t that easy to walk on – slippery rocks – so with my talent for tripping and falling I though it best to admire from afar!
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What a wonderful place to spend a week.
You truly do know how to gallivant! 😀
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We do, Donna, and we are very frustrated at the moment! Oh to be transported back to The Old Lobster House.
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I am going to be interested in your post about the sculptures. I have seen the one in Eyemouth.
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The Eyemouth one is by far the biggest, but they are all very poignant.
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Love those Basil Spence houses!
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Aren’t they lovely? And quite unexpected in the setting. At least they survived – the flats he designed in Glasgow have long since been demolished as impractical for the climate.
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Oh, indeed
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I have never been there but it looks like a splendid little spot for a quiet getaway. I love the look of those three storey buildings and how cool to stay in a converted lobster shed. That property looks to be a bit of a tardis. They have definitely made the most of the small space.
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It was really lovely, and we had lots of space. There would have been even more if it hadn’t been so full of bric-a-brac! I’m glad it was not my job to dust it.
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Well I am sold! Book me a week at the old lobster house next year please. 😘, Looks exactly the type of place I would like to stay at. 🙂 X
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I hope we can all get to gorgeous cottages next year! We had one booked at Easter in Perthshire which we’ve moved to August, but I’m not convinced it will happen.
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We have one booked in Northumberland in may. We want to move it to September ( or get our money back) but they won’t speak to us until a week before we go, which is a pain.
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Yes, our company said that on its website so I didn’t bother contacting them, then a fortnight before we got an email saying if we wanted to change the date we could do that online. The lockdown had hardly started then so August seemed ages away. Now it doesn’t!
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I agree on the cottage: with that view I would have booked it too!
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It was perfect!
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I can ell imagine that!
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Hi Anabel – I do love those sorts of places and I love looking at what appears when the sea disappears. I just wander off and see where the seas at when I ‘brow’ the hill – as I often can’t remember … it was high tide at this time about 10 days ago … so somewhat different now! Stunning area to visit and look around … lovely – stay safe – Hilary
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How lovely to be able to view the sea whenever you want!
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Lovely despite the weather… Oh, I am longing to be able to go someplace new to explore but it isn’t possible for a while yet even within Canada! (Suzanne)
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I know, I feel the same – I especially want to be beside the sea.
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Maybe soon we will be able to travel within our own country…I certainly hope so.
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Excellent post. The 1881 disaster devastated the east coast, particularly Berwickshire and Eyemouth. I was just looking at a picture of the St Abbs sculptures the other day.
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I had never heard of it before. Quite shocking!
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Looks a lovely place to stay, right on the water like that. There is another of those sculptures at St Abbs, but you probably know that already!
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We managed to visit all four sculptures during the week. It was a great place to stay, we loved it there. You would recognise some of the walks we did.
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What a cosy cottage that was! I would love to spend some time there looking at the endlessly changing seascape. Look forward to your next post re the disaster linked to the interesting sculpture.
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It was blissful, Mari, I find the sea endlessly fascinating.
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Ooh, I’d love to stay there! I’ve worked out it’s only 553 miles to my favourite place on Mull. I suspect Burnmouth could end up being further, although not as the crow flies.
Partanhall looks remarkable like Furness (Local Hero) but I don’t recall that name in the film’s credits.
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Straight up the east coast line to Berwick! Local Hero was made in Pennan in Aberdeenshire, but it is very similar with the cottages at the bottom of the cliffs.
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Gorgeous wee cottage. I can imagine hunkering down there in stormy weather — but I can imagine how the women must have felt when their men were out to sea in bad weather,
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Yes, the memorial expresses that very clearly.
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I would love a view like that now.
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So would I! I miss the sea, which is too far for us to visit, but I’ve enjoyed seeing other people’s seas in their posts.
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