John Muir's Birthplace

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Content updated Tue, 30 Jun 1998 00:38:26 GMT

John Muir's Dunbar... [home]

Dunbar Parish Kirkyard - East

Hole in the Wall

68 - 70 High Street

After going round the Kirk, leave the kirkyard by the main gate and return to the top of the High Street. Alternatively, turn back to Woodbush Brae, and head down to the Shore - the narrative continues at the end of this section.

At the head of the street, the Free or Abbey Church [15] was built in John's time, to accommodate another split in the Established Church. In all there were six Dunbar Churches or denominations, supplemented by travelling missionaries and evangelists on the stump, preaching to the fishing community and holding open air meetings. It was one of these groups, the Disciples of Christ, that convinced Daniel Muir that his future lay in the New World.

The area in front of the Abbeylands building (to the left as you look down the High Street) was integral to the administration of the Burgh. Here was a steelyard or weighing platform: all goods imported to the harbours - corn, coal, etc., were weighed and taxed. Within the old Masonic Lodge (the black and white building) was a header tank for the Town's piped water supply, which ran to well-heads in the main streets and courtyards. This puts John's Saturday 'bath time tales' into perspective: the servant girls collected the family's daily water needs by the bucket-load, from outside, in all seasons and weathers. The household would be lucky to have a range sophisticated enough to include a boiler, hence the use of rock-pools to bathe the children in summer!