John Muir's Birthplace

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Content updated Sun, 20 Jun 1999 23:23:54 GMT

John Muir's Dunbar... [home]

About Dunbar's John Muir Association

John Muir's Dunbar

Around the High Street

When I was a boy in Scotland I was fond of everything that was wild, and all my life I've been growing fonder and fonder of wild places and wild things. Fortunately, around my native town of Dunbar by the stormy North Sea, there was no lack of wildness, though most of the land lay in smooth cultivation.

John Muir never lost his love of his native land and home town; he was to write movingly about his youth in his first volume of autobiography and one of his most famous quotes is reproduced above. Frustratingly for the modern reader, the book gives only tantalising glimpses of the circumstances of John's early days - he selected tales to suit the aim of his book. We do know that his boyhood was critical to the character of the grown man because he tells us as much himself. So, exploring the Dunbar of early Victorian days may light up John Muir's boyhood. One way of doing this is by walking the byways of Dunbar and looking for the shadows cast by John, his peers and his family.

Victoria Harbour

John was born in 1838. His hardy, inquiring character was formed during a time of change in ancient Dunbar. The dawn of the Victorian age was heralded by a vast project, the winning of the Victoria Harbour, named by special permission in honour of the new Queen. Shortly after, the railway was laid between Edinburgh and Berwick, arriving in Dunbar in 1846. These innovations and the collapse of older industries were to radically alter life in the hoary old Burgh. Changes in trade and business prompted many to seek new opportunities in empty lands across the Atlantic. The Muirs were only one of several families to leave in this period. Most left no record of their going or even of their time in Dunbar. John Muir's boyhood tales are therefore a valuable record of these days and provide clues to his adult motivation and achievements.

By starting with John's infancy and concluding with his single return visit in adulthood, in 1893, a structure to the walk falls into place. Rather than follow a prescribed route, the walk can simply be sampled as part of a visit to Dunbar. However, the core of the walk can still be followed from start to finish, in which case it would take about an hour. There are some steep slopes on the way although alternative routes are given around flights of steps or the more inaccessible passages. Good luck! Explore and have fun!