Cove is a village in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

area of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, northwest of the Scotland/England border. It is about southeast of Edinburgh and from Dunbar. Cove is close to

Cockburnspath Cockburnspath ( ) is a village in Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders. It lies near the North Sea coast between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Dunbar. Cockburnspath is the eastern terminus of the Southern Upland Way as well as the northern terminus of ...

Dunglass Dunglass is a hamlet in East Lothian, Scotland, lying east of the Lammermuir Hills on the North Sea coast, within the parish of Oldhamstocks. It has a 15th-century collegiate church, now in the care of Historic Scotland. Dunglass is the birt ...

Innerwick Innerwick () is a coastal civil parish and small village, which lies in the east of East Lothian, from Dunbar and approximately from Edinburgh. Name The name Innerwick is of Anglo-saxon origin and means inland farm or dwelling place. It was ...

Oldhamstocks Oldhamstocks is a civil parish and small village in the east of East Lothian, Scotland, adjacent to the Scottish Borders and overlooking the North Sea. It is located south-east of Dunbar and has a population of 193. The church was consecrated ...

Bilsdean Bilsdean is a village between Thorntonloch and Cockburnspath on the East Lothian coast of Scotland. See also *List of places in East Lothian The List of places in East Lothian is a list for any town, village and hamlet in the East Lothian ...

, and, further afield,

Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the Anglo–Scottish border, English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and ...

and

Eyemouth Eyemouth is a town and civil parishes in Scotland, civil parish in Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. It is east of the main north–south A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road and north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. The town's name ...

. The climate is typical for Scotland, with cold, wet winters and variable summer weather, with days of rain and days of temperatures over . The nearest railway station is Dunbar, which is on the main East Coast line from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh. There are regular trains both from Dunbar to Edinburgh and southwards to

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

. The nearest bus station is in Cockburnspath which takes passengers north to Edinburgh terminating at St Andrews Square, and southwards, terminating in Berwick. The rocks that form the approach to the harbour are limestones and sandstones of

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

age. They dip sharply to the N/NW due to the downthrust of the Cove fault about southeast. Beyond the fault, older

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum (: strata) is a layer of Rock (geology), rock or sediment characterized by certain Lithology, lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by v ...

of the

Old Red Sandstone Old Red Sandstone, abbreviated ORS, is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the eastern seaboard of North America. It ...

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

age can be seen. The natural harbour was improved in 1831 by the building of a

breakwater Breakwater may refer to: * Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour Places * Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia * Breakwater Island, Antarctica * Breakwater Islands, Nunavut, Canada * ...

. Access is via an unusual tunnel. As of Summer 2024 funding is being raised for repairs to the breakwater, which has suffered storm damage on one end. Eyemouth disaster memorial at Cove

Eleven men from Cove died in the great Eyemouth disaster of 1881. There is a memorial at the top of the cliffs. The village has been described by ''The AA Guide to the British Coast'' as having more of a Cornish than Scottish air about it. It has no school, shops or post office, although it was knocked down to build new holiday homes. There is a shop and post office nearby in the village of Cockburnspath which also has a school. For amenities, such as a pool or a gym, people need to travel to Dunbar, which is also has an ASDA supermarket. The nearby beaches of Pease Bay () and Thorntonloch () are used for

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suita ...

. Cove is privately owned by the architect Ben Tindall and the Cove Harbour Conservation Ltd. The

Southern Upland Way The Southern Upland Way is a coast-to-coast long-distance footpath in southern Scotland. The route links Portpatrick in the west and Cockburnspath in the east via the hills of the Southern Uplands. The Way is designated as one of Scotland's ...

passes through Cove along the headland and the road in Cove. The

John Muir Way The John Muir Way is a continuous Long-distance trail, long-distance route in southern Scotland, running from Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute in the west to Dunbar, East Lothian in the east. It is named in honour of the Scottish conservation ...

passes through Dunbar, about away.

References

External links

SCRAN image: Cove Harbour, BerwickshireRCAHMS/Canmore record for Cockburnspath railway station; CoveScottish Borders Council planning requestGEOGRAPH image for Cove, BerwickshireCove Harbour
{{authority control Villages in the Scottish Borders