Siccar Point

Crawford Macnab

25 April 2024

A walk with a talk or was it a talk with a walk?!

Mike had kindly arranged for his friend Robert Gatling to come along and give us a talk about Siccar Point and James Hutton.

An excellent turn out of 13 Marauders (Willie, Stuart, Helen, Sue, Mike, Richard, Moira, Sarah, Crawford, Pamela, Isabel, Alistair and Pam) met in Cockburnspath for the start of the walk. Not to forget the ever eager Cosmo and Meg and our guest walker, Robert.

Despite being a small place, Cockburnspath has at least two memorials so not suprisingly we managed to park next to both of them! Willie headed down to the war memorial (the agreed meeting point!) to ensure everyone was present and correct for the walk start.

Approximately the first two thirds of the walk was on the Southern Upland Way so navigation was unlikely to be an issue. From Cockburnspath we started heading east to pass under the A1 and the east coast railway line.

Before long we turned north to head towards Cove where Robert suggested we take a detour down to visit Cove Harbour.

At Cove there was a statue to commerorate the fishing disaster of 1881.

“On October 14th, 1881, a devastating fishing disaster occurred in Cove, Scotland, which was part of the worst fishing disaster in Scottish history. The storm, known as the “Black Friday” fishing disaster, resulted in the loss of 189 men, with 107 widows and 351 fatherless children left behind. The disaster was particularly devastating for the coastal villages, including Cove, which lost many men in the tragedy.”

From here we descended down on a path and passed through a short tunnel to reach the small Cove Harbour.

With a few photos taken we retraced our steps to pass back through the tunnel. A few torches would have been helpful especially for the taller members in the group to avoid hitting the roof of the tunnel. Fortunately Alistair survived his wee bump!

The weather was threatening rain but fortunately this never came to much and there was no need to don waterproof trousers. The easterly wind did though carry some bite as we headed south east along the cliff tops.

The path headed inland to briefly join a minor road dropping down to the caravan park at Pease Bay. At this point we left the Southern Upland Way that headed south but instead crossed a wooden bridge over the Pease Burn to continue on the Berwickshire Coastal Path. The path left the minor road to climb some steep wooden steps to head around Pealands Banks.

With stomachs rumbling a lunch stop was required and a suitably sheltered spot was found on the side of the minor road to the Food Manufacturing plant in Drysdale Quarry.

Refreshed we left the Berwickshire Coastal Path, passing the remains of St Helens Church to head to Siccar Point. An information panel guiding us round the edge of the the steep sea-braes.

At the cliff top at Siccar Point there was a further information panel, though we had the luxury of listening to Robert’s very interesting talk.

For those that want to find further information than that shown in the photographed panels could take a look at the Siccar Point Wikipedia entry.

With a team photo secured, Robert offered to lead the party further down on to the rocks below at Siccar Point. We were forewarned it was a steep descent with a rope available for assistance. Some of the group decided to stay up top with the rest descending down carefully to the rocks below.

Robert continued to describe further points of interests especially examples of the vertical / horizontal layers positioned adjacent to each other.

Eventually we had to make the steep pull back up to the cliff top. As expected this proved to be quite tough but taking our time and using the rope for support everyone safely made it back to the top. In wetter conditions I am sure this down/up would have been significantly more challenging. Robert pointed out an alternative diagonal route that was used in such conditions and Mike proved the point by choosing to take this route back up.

We then began our return to Cockburnspath by retracing our steps away from Siccar Point. As we reached the small visitors car park for Siccar Point we got chatting to a visiting young Italian geologist who was on a climbing trip to Northumberland and had decided to drive up to take a look at Siccar Point. Confirming Siccar Point to be a must visit site for geologists worldwide!

The sun was now making an appearance and layers were taken off as we decided to shorten the return by taking a shorter route along a relatively safe minor road.

Before long we were back in Cockburnspath and everyone headed to the Cockburnspath Community Shop who were serving simple tea/coffee from behind the counter. Our sudden arrival somewhat overwhelmed the shop who had to call upon backup china mugs as they ran out of their takeaway cups. Everyone got their desired drink or ice cream and retired to a few convenient benches to unwind from the days exertions. (Thanks to Sarah?/Helen? who purchased a cherry cake for the group to share)

An enjoyable walk and many thanks to Robert Gatling for his interesting incite on Siccar Point and James Hutton.

Crawford Macnab.