St Abbs wild camp. Scotland

St Abbs is a small fishing village situated on the edge of
St Abb’s Head National Nature Reserve on the northeast coast of Scotland.
It was originally called Coldingham Shore before settlers started building the harbour and village. The village is apparently named after a 7th-century Northumbrian princess who made it to the shore after her ship sank.

The village is well known for its scuba diving as the waters are unusually clear and present,s one of the most stunning underwater kelp forests in that area and home to the marine reserve which was established on 18 August 1984 by David Bellamy.

In 1881 Friday 14th October a great windstorm battered the northeast coast of Scotland 189 fisherman drowned as the sea destroyed their fishing boats. Three were from this very village Charles Purvis and two brothers, William and James Thorburn all perished in this storm and the statue above is in memory of these fishermen. The figurine shows the fisherman’s three wives and their children looking out to sea and watching in horror as the storm swallowed their boat. This tragic day is known as Black Friday by the villagers.

The reserve is home to a wide variety of plants and flowers such as rock-rose, wild thyme and purple milk-vetch and colony’s of sea birds including kittiwakes,
guillemots and razorbills.

We started our adventure in st abbs where we followed the coastal path into the reserve. I brought my fishing pole along hoping I could catch us some fish for supper. The views were absolutely stunning but also scary as the path followed the edge of the vertical cliffs. There were some big drops and my friend Trev is not one for heights.. We eventually got to a lovely small cove called horsecastle bay and decided that this was the camp spot for the night.

I planned on making a fish cake and cook some welks on my wood burner but that didn’t exactly go to plan so I had fish with rice. Watch this adventure in the video below and thanks for watching folks.