Dunbar, EH42 1HY
Dunbar Harbour is an important shellfish harbour as well as mooring for pleasure and rowing boats, and was in the past a key maritime commercial hub at the mouth of the Firth of Forth. The Harbour is made up of three distinct parts: The Old Harbour (sometimes called Cromwell Harbour) is dating from 1547 to the East and is protected by a 920ft sea-wall terminating short of Lamar Island, a rocky outcrop which long sheltered the prior natural anchorage. The New or Victoria Harbour in the West dating from 1842; and Broad Haven, the old entryway to from the sea, now sheltered water between the two Harbours. In the past, the harbours here were also protected by one of the strongest fortresses in Scotland, the Dunbar Castle, ruins of which are to the north of Victoria Harbour.
Dunbar Harbour is also known as the home to the second oldest Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) station in the UK, constructed in 1901 and continuing a service dating from 1808. The Harbour complex has a number of engineering features such as: The Ordnance Survey Tidal Gauge built in 1913 as part of a network of stations used to establish the ‘Mean Sea Level’ to measure all land heights in the UK; a 19th century two-leaf bascule bridge that spans from the Victoria Harbours Quay to the Lamar Island; and Dunbar Battery, a built in 1781 on Lamar Island, to protect the town from privateers. The battery’s structures were converted into a hospital for infectious diseases in 1874, though closing in 1906, until being re-opened as a World War I hospital in 1914. More than a century later, in 2017, the battery has been repurposed as an outdoor arts venue.
Dunbar Battery: https://dunbarbattery.org.uk/
Dunbar Harbour Trust: https://dunbarharbourtrust.co.uk/
Dunbar RNLI Station: https://rnli.org/find-my-nearest/lifeboat-stations/dunbar-lifeboat-station