Coldingham

Coldingham's hotel and guest house options are modest but well matched to what draws people here: the coast. Expect small, family-run B&Bs and guest houses in the village itself, several with a straightforward, no-frills approach aimed at walkers, surfers and divers passing through rather than a luxury break. Self-catering cottages are common in and around the village, often booked up well ahead for summer weekends given the pull of Coldingham Bay and St Abbs Head.

For more choice, Eyemouth, three miles along the coast, has a wider spread of hotels and guest houses, along with harbourside restaurants, while St Abbs itself has a small number of characterful B&Bs, some specifically set up for the diving community that the marine reserve attracts. Berwick-upon-Tweed, eight miles south with its own railway station, is a practical base for anyone travelling without a car, with a broader choice of hotels and easy onward links up the coast.

Wherever you stay, book ahead for the summer months: this stretch of Berwickshire coast is popular with divers, surfers and birdwatchers, and rooms at the smaller village guest houses go quickly once the weather turns.

Coldingham makes a good base for exploring one of the most concentrated stretches of coastal scenery in the Borders, on foot or by car.

• Coldingham Priory — The ruins and working parish church built into the remains of the 1098 Benedictine priory, with information panels on its turbulent history of Viking raids, English sieges and a Cromwellian bombardment.
• Coldingham Bay — A Seaside Award-winning sandy beach a mile from the village, popular with families, swimmers and, thanks to reliable beach breaks, surfers; there are lifeguards on duty through summer.
• St Vedas Surf Shop and surf lessons — A beachfront surf shop and school at Coldingham Bay running lessons and board and wetsuit hire most weekends between February and November, and daily through the school holidays.
• St Abbs Head National Nature Reserve — A dramatic clifftop walk a couple of miles north of the village, with wildflower-covered cliff tops, a lighthouse and, in spring and summer, thousands of nesting seabirds including guillemots, kittiwakes, razorbills and gannets.
• St Abbs village and harbour — A tiny, picture-postcard fishing harbour just along the coast, and the gateway to the St Abbs and Eyemouth Voluntary Marine Reserve, one of the best cold-water diving and snorkelling sites in Britain.
• The Creel Path — A circular coastal walking route linking Coldingham, Coldingham Bay and St Abbs, following the old path used by fishwives carrying creels of fish up from the harbour to sell inland.
• Wildlife boat trips — Seasonal cruises run from St Abbs harbour past the cliffs of St Abbs Head, giving a close-up view of the seabird colonies and the chance of seeing seals, dolphins and porpoises.

The village has two pubs serving food, including the Anchor Inn on School Road, a traditional stop for a pint and pub classics after a day on the coast path. Down at the beach, a seasonal beach cafe serves the usual mix of coffee, ice cream and bacon rolls to surfers and sunbathers, and St Abbs harbour, a short drive or walk away, has a couple of cafes with views over the water. It is a modest but genuine choice, in keeping with a village of this size.

Coldingham sits on one of the most rewarding short stretches of coastline in Scotland for campers, and this is genuinely wild country in places, so it is worth knowing the rules before you pitch up. Scotland's right to roam, set out in the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, means wild camping is generally legal on unenclosed land here, away from buildings, roads and enclosed fields, and provided you camp responsibly, in small numbers, for a couple of nights at most, and leave no trace. It is a genuinely different proposition from camping south of the border, and the clifftops and coves around St Abbs Head are a popular, if exposed, spot for those who come prepared.

For anyone who would rather not rely on wild camping, there are touring caravan and camping sites within a few miles of the village, many making the most of sea views towards St Abbs Head, along with a growing number of glamping pods and yurts scattered around the Berwickshire coast and countryside inland, offering a more comfortable base for exploring the cliffs and beaches without the exposure of a tent on open ground.

The terrain here is coastal rather than mountainous: exposed clifftop grassland, rocky headlands and a sweep of dune behind Coldingham Bay, which means good shelter is at a premium and a sturdy, weatherproof tent matters more than in a sheltered glen inland. Late spring and early autumn, roughly May, June and September, tend to offer the best combination of long daylight, settled weather and fewer midges, since the biting insects that plague more sheltered, wooded parts of Scotland from June to August are far less of a problem on this open, breezy coastline. Whatever the season, a stiff onshore wind off the North Sea is the norm rather than the exception, so pack accordingly.