John Muir's Birthplace

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Content updated Sun, 31 Jan 1999 23:38:48 GMT

John Muir's Dunbar... [home]

Lamer Street and Old Harbour

Victoria Harbour and Dunbar Castle

Conclusion

Victoria Harbour

The Victoria Harbour [21] was built when John was growing up. At one end is Dunbar's eighteenth century battery [22], built to ward off pirates and privateers. It was reached by a causeway over the sands. The guns, which may never have been used in anger, were last fired during the grand Masonic parade which dedicated the harbour works. John was surely in the crowd that day. It took some time to get the harbour right. There were problems with the seaward wall, which has been breached several times. The shoreside quay has been remodelled and the entrance deepened and widened.

Harbour Entrance & Ruins of Dunbar Castle

Over the latter looms the Castle Rock, an old volcanic neck [23]. There and nearby were the halls and walls, bastions and bulwarks, foreworks and all the pertinants of the Castle of Dunbar, one of Scotland's strongest. It was the fastness of the earls of Dunbar, the centre of their holdings. They were a powerful family, related to the Royal family of Scotland, until they were thrown down. The Castle became a Royal Castle, as were Stirling and Edinburgh. It housed the national artillery train and was garrisoned by the French during the times of the Auld Alliance. With the changing political landscape it was torn down in 1568.

To John it was

...one of our best playgrounds ... to which King Edward fled after his defeat at Bannockburn. It was built more than a thousand years ago, and though we knew little of its history, we had heard many mysterious stories of the battles fought about its walls, and firmly believed that every bone we found in the ruins belonged to an ancient warrior. We tried to see who could climb highest on the crumbling peaks and crags and took chances that no cautious mountaineer would try. That I did not fall and finish my rock-scrambling in these adventurous boyhood days seems now a reasonable wonder.

Walls of Dunbar Castle

In later life John was renowned for his abilities on rock, frequently venturing beyond where his companions could go, all with a minimum of equipment. On the glaciers of Alaska, he was equally sure-footed: having scampered over algae covered rocks by deep turbulent pools, he certainly had the knack. The remnants of the castle have dwindled even more since John wrote and it is now closed to public access. In the summer months it is the home of a colony of kittiwakes, dainty little gulls who rear their young on the craggy face where once John scrambled with his friends.