John Muir Country Park
Belhaven, 1 mile west · free access · year-round
A 1,700-acre coastal park stretching from Belhaven Bay east past Dunbar to Tyninghame, named for the town's most famous son. Dune systems, estuary mudflats, ancient woodland, and 12 miles of coastal path. The beach at Belhaven is wide, white-sand, and backed by dunes in good condition. Whiteadder Water meets the sea here in a way that is different at every tide. Seals haul out on the rocks near the river mouth; the estuary is significant for waders and wildfowl in winter.
John Muir Birthplace Museum
126 High Street · free · Apr–Oct daily; Nov–Mar reduced hours
The house where John Muir was born in 1838, now a small museum covering his early years in Dunbar and his subsequent transformation into the most influential figure in American conservation — Yosemite National Park, the Sierra Club, the preservation of half of California's natural landscape, all traceable to a childhood on this East Lothian coastline. The museum is small and the material is handled seriously.
Tantallon Castle
9 miles west on A198 · HES adult £8, child £5 · open daily Apr–Oct; limited winter
A 14th-century cliff-edge fortress of the Douglas family — a great red sandstone curtain wall on three sides, a 100-foot drop to the North Sea on the fourth. Bass Rock is directly offshore: 107 metres of volcanic basalt topped by a lighthouse and, from January to September, the largest accessible northern gannet colony in the world (150,000 birds). Tantallon is one of the most dramatically sited castle ruins in Scotland and entirely earns the drive.
Belhaven Brewery
1 mile west at Belhaven · tours by arrangement · ales available in town
One of Scotland's oldest operating breweries, founded 1719 on the site of a Benedictine monastery in Belhaven village. The brewery produces a range of traditional Scottish ales; the Belhaven Best is Scotland's best-selling cask ale. The brewery is not a major tourist operation but tours can be arranged. The Shore Inn at Dunbar Harbour serves the ales correctly — worth knowing for post-round consolidation.
Dirleton Castle & Gardens
8 miles west on A198 near North Berwick · HES adult £7 · open daily year-round
A 13th-century castle with one of Scotland's best Arts and Crafts gardens — a 17th-century bowling green converted in the 1920s into a herbaceous border that now ranks among the longest in the world. The castle itself is atmospheric; the garden, in July and August, is extraordinary. 8 miles from Dunbar on the A198 through the East Lothian farmland.