Welcome to Dunbar’s historic High Street with its broad pavements, narrow closes and historic entry points - the Ports.
This tour was led in person for many years by a local historian and informal tour guide, Roy Pugh. Roy has kindly shared the details of his tour and with the support of the Dunbar History Society it is now available as a self guided digital tour.
You will find many of the Closes on this tour have had different names over the last few hundreds of years. The names often depended on who was either “famous” at the time or who owned the shop next door to the Close.
Dunbar’s High Street is like many Scottish towns, lined with end to end tenements to make a continuous frontage. They often start right at the pavement, leaving no room for a front garden, but hidden at the back are long, narrow plots with outbuildings and greens. Visitors to the beautiful Backlands Garden can see now see how this might have looked.
To start the tour head to the start of the High Street by the Royal MacIntosh Hotel, to the side of the Abbey Church.
