News 

The Prospectus for the St Andrew’s Kirk Ports project has recently been updated and re-branded as NB Heritage. The Prospectus is intended to give an accessible overview of the project and what we hope to achieve, and it will be of interest to potential funders and regulators, as well as the wider community. We are very grateful to Michelle Hussel who designed the Prospectus for us, and to ELC Print Unit who have printed a small number of hard copies for us to hand to prospective funders and donors. If you would like to help with the project, or have other ideas for community use of the conserved kirk, we’d love to hear from you! 

 
November 2025 

As part of East Lothian Archaeology and Heritage Fortnight, our popular tours of St Andrew’s Kirk Ports again took place in early September.  

Two of the tours focused on stories of the people and families buried in the graveyard, while the third covered the campaign to save the kirk and explore the conservation challenges ahead. The tours were led by Joy Dodd (historian), Olwyn Owen (archaeologist) and Fraser Bell (conservation architect). 

The weather dampened spirits on the first tour, but the next two were blessed with lovely sunshine and were enjoyed by everyone who came. As one of our visitors wrote afterwards: 'Thanks so much for introducing me to this wonderful part of the town's history!'.  

There is exciting news from pARTicipate this year: our grant application to the Stella Moffat Trust was successful, which means that we can now have a door made for the third cabin (seen on the left in this photo). This new door will be custom-built by a local joiner and the plan is to make it easily removeable and re-attachable. This means we will have the option of protecting installations from the elements, but we can also still have an open cabin for more interactive community projects.

We are delighted that several other local groups have taken up our invitation to use the cabins. We have installations planned for the next few weeks, but if you have a project in mind or know of a group who would be keen to create a display, please do get in touch. The guidelines for use of this unique art space are here.

(September 2025)

The Heritage Guides programme continues to go from strength to strength. So far this year, we have published three new Guides: ‘The Lighthouse Stevensons’, ‘Galloway’s Pier’ and ‘Coastguard Cottages and Rocket House’, and several more are in the pipeline. Copies of all of the guides are available in the Library, the Coastal Communities Museum, the Tuck Shop at the station and the Seabird Centre.

The online versions of the guides are now supported by improved page-turning software, and the guides can also be downloaded as PDFs.

We have also just published a new map of the Heritage Guides, showing their locations in North Berwick. Printed copies of the map are also available in the Library, the Coastal Communities Museum, the Seabird Centre and the Tuck Shop at the station. The back of the map includes QR codes which give immediate access to the online guides. 

We are very grateful to the Stella Moffat Trust, North Berwick Trust and the Tesco blue buttons scheme for their support for this project. 

If you have an idea for a Heritage Guide or would like to write one on your favourite feature, please do get in touch! The guidelines for writing heritage guides can be found here.

The guides were developed originally by our former Secretary, Jonathan Best (seen here), and are edited and produced by Trust member Eddie Clark. We welcome ideas for new guides – and would also welcome new authors! So if you’d like to research and write a guide on a favourite aspect of the town’s heritage, please do get in touch.

(September 2025)

The application for Conservation Area Consent to demolish the former Golf Hotel has now been called-in for determination by Scottish Ministers. A Reporter has been appointed and he will undertake an unaccompanied site visit and prepare a report, which will be considered by Scottish Ministers. All objections (including that from NB Heritage) and associated documents have been passed to the Reporter. The target date for the report to be with Scottish Ministers is mid-October, and a decision will follow in due course. In July the site owner, Kevin Doyle of Caledonian Heritable, called an impromptu meeting titled ‘The Unintended Consequences’, by which he meant that the building could become a House of Multiple Occupation, such as a migrant hostel. Despite the short notice, around 60 people attended the meeting. The overwhelming majority opposed demolition of the historic building and wanted to see it converted into flats. This attractive and quirky building dates from the late 19th century and is an important component of the Conservation Area, occupying a prominent corner site on the main road into town. 

(September 2025)

North Berwick has two unusual viewpoint shelters, probably of mid 20th-century date – a larger one on Tantallon Terrace at the base of Castle Hill, and a smaller other on the hill above it, adjacent to Glasclune Gardens. Both shelters have fine views northwards over the Firth of Forth. Both were in poor condition and in need of restoration. The Rotary Club of North Berwick and a local Veterans’ Group (supported by NB Heritage) led campaigns to repair the shelters. With funding and support from North Berwick Trust, the Rotary Club and East Lothian Council, both shelters were renovated in early 2025 and re-opened at a very enjoyable ceremony in May. The shelters are owned by East Lothian Council.

(May 2025)

Our work on monitoring planning applications is led by Trustee Kirsty Towler, to whom we extend heartfelt thanks. Kirsty checks the planning list every week for applications that might affect the conservation area or wider townscape, and responds on our behalf to the Council when necessary. In recent months we have objected to several applications, notably the proposed demolition of the former Golf Hotel and redevelopment of the site. This attractive and traditional Victorian sandstone building dates from 1888 and is located within the North Berwick Conservation Area on a very prominent corner site. We believe it could and should be retained and converted into a residential home or flats. The proposed redevelopment is also unacceptable in scale and would have an adverse impact on the Conservation Area. 

As usual, the planning lists continue to be dominated by applications for short-term lets, many in the town centre. Interestingly, there are 5 appeals with the Scottish Government on local short-term let properties where the agent is STL Solutions. This company asserts that short-term lets do not represent a change of use – we await the outcome of the appeals.

Members are probably already aware that East Lothian Council has decided to proceed with the parking management scheme, in the face of strong local opposition and over 500 objections. Along with many others, we are disappointed that the Council has decided not to refer the scheme to a public hearing by the Department of Environment and Planning Appeals. In our view, the scheme is too complex for this small town and takes no account of the seasonality of the parking problems. We believe it will bring considerable inconvenience and expense for residents and businesses all year round, and possibly threaten the viability of the High Street, while not helping to resolve the actual parking problems for our visitors in the summer. A particular worry for this Trust is that no consideration appears to have been given to the adverse impact of parking infrastructure (meters and signage) on the Conservation Area – no information was provided about this in any of the documentation. Despite strong local opposition, the Council has decided to proceed. Planning permission has recently been granted for the first tranche of parking meters in the Conservation Area. 

(September 2025)

In November 2024, pARTicipate and the Bass Rock Community Group once again coordinated acts of remembrance for Armistice Day. A magnificent array of memorial pebbles were painted with poppies – by children and older people from no less than 12 different groups – complemented by a poppy-themed cabin in the ‘Telephone Exchange’.

The phone cabins also took part in this year’s wonderful ‘Window Wanderland’. Huge thanks to Trustee Julia Zeller-Jacques for all her hard work on this – and all year!

We are keen for other local groups and charities to use the phone cabins and have recently published guidelines to help groups make their plans. Please do get in touch if you or your group would like to display your work in the ‘Telephone Exchange’ at the west end of High Street.

(November 2024)