A bit about Eyemouth
Dolphin landlord Sam McKeen’s friends Alan and Oliver are compiling a book called ‘Round Eyemouth for publication in 2010. To find out more: www.enablerpublications.co.uk
Here are some tidbits which offer some information on Eyemouth.
Eyemouth has always been a vibrant and at times challenging place. Living from, by, and with the sea is its lifeblood. It is a place of contradictions. It has a history of being at odds with authority. It is a place where witch-burnings and battles between the Scots and the English have taken place. Smuggling (referred to as ‘free trade’ locally) has rubbed shoulders with church-going. It is a place where change is sometimes obstructed – ‘it’s aye been’ (it has always been) is an oft used phrase. But, conversely, Eyemouth has retained its sense of community, a sense of place, coupled with a wry Scottish Borders’ humour – commodities that are very important in the 2000s! Michael Tierney wrote of Eyemouth 2007 in the Herald Magazine that:
‘Compared with Glasgow or Edinburgh, places LIKE Eyemouth are relics of another Scottish era and increasingly remote. Yet there is a real sense of community here by the sea, not just a ghost of one.’
Angling, boat trips, diving and golf
All of these activities act as a magnet for visitors to Eyemouth. Possible
trips include visiting the seal colony at Fast Castle, the caves at Burnmouth
and around St Abbs Head where there are substantial bird colonies. There
is also a glass-bottomed boat operating out of Eyemouth harbour.
It is reckoned that about 35,000 divers visit the Eyemouth and St Abbs Voluntary Marine Reserve each year. There are a number of boats and companies operating in the area, one of which is Aquamarine Charters, telephone: 018907 50481 (website: www.aquamarine-charters.co.uk). There are many local wrecks which are centres for marine life, including the President, Mauretana, U-Boat 714 and the Congo.
Eyemouth Golf Club is an interesting and challenging cliff top course of 6,520 yards, par 72. It features what has been called, ‘Britain's most extraordinary hole’, a par three, with a tee on one side of a gulley which crosses rocks and some real North Sea, over to a green on the other side.
All-in packages can be booked through the Dolphin Hotel.
Old churchyard, the Watch House and memorials to Black Friday
Now forming a unique garden area between the High Street and Albert Road with views out to the bay, this is the site of the town’s old churchyard. Central to this space is a striking granite sculpture in the form of a broken ship’s mast in memorial to the 189 fishermen who died at sea in the Eyemouth Disaster on 14th October 1881. Up on the elevated section to the rear of the churchyard, stands a newer memorial to Black Friday. These small, beautifully sculpted bronze figures, designed by local artist, Jill Watson, represent the women and children left behind after Black Friday as they desperately looked out into the bay for their loved ones on that fateful night. Only one-fifth complete, the eventual sculpture is part of the group of memorials located in all the other coastal towns and villages which lost fishermen. Eventually they will depict the exact number of women and children left husbandless and fatherless from the fishing communities.
Another feature of this old churchyard is the extraordinary building in its bottom corner. This building is the cemetery’s ‘Watch House’, which was used as a guard-house against ‘resurrectionists’ or ‘body snatchers It was built almost entirely out of elaborately carved tombstones when the graveyard underwent a dramatic transformation following the 1849 cholera epidemic. This claimed the lives of a hundred people and resulted in the level of the churchyard needing to be raised by six feet. The flat gravestones were covered up by the new layer of earth, with some of the upright ones being preserved in the construction of the Watch House and laid vertical against the walls surrounding the cemetery.
Further commemorations to some of the victims of Black Friday can still be deciphered on some of these gravestones, which provide a reminder of the garden’s former use.
Walking
Eyemouth is ideally situated for walking and cycling excursions. The coast
path is very special. It starts in Berwick upon Tweed and can be walked
along the rugged coastline of cliffs, coves and spectacular scenery to the
quaint village and harbour at Burnmouth, then along the ups and downs of
the cliffs to Eyemouth and around the coves to St Abbs and even further
afield to Fast Castle and Dowlaw.
Steeped in history – it’s waiting for you to make your own journeys of discovery.
But, even down by the harbour and the edge of river Eye, there are pleasant paths and plenty to see in the often bustling harbour. On most days, the seals can be spotted waiting around for their free fish meals near the entrance to the harbour.
Eyemouth Museum and Tourist Information Centre
The unmistakable ‘Auld Kirk’, with its tall clock tower, is
the former Eyemouth Parish Church and is now home to Eyemouth Museum and
Tourist Information Centre. Alexander Gilkie built the Kirk, which opened
in 1812. 
Then,
to mark the hundredth anniversary of the Eyemouth Fishing Disaster in 1981,
it was converted to house the Museum and Tourist Information Centre. The
Museum’s ground floor exhibitions describe the town’s way of
life through the ages, both on land and at sea, using a wide variety of
photos, illustrations and artefacts. The highlight, however, is a magnificent
15 foot long tapestry commemorating the Eyemouth Disaster. This incorporates
images of the storm, its victims and their boats, through to the sunrise
of a new day. The tapestry is a remarkable and moving tribute, woven by
local people on the centenary of the tragic, Black Friday.
Eyemouth is also the home of the recently renovated Gunsgreen House (see photo on left) – probably built by the Adam brothers in 1764, it was the original smuggling centre for the town, and the World of Boats exhibition on the harbourside: