Dunbar

Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland. Archaeological excavations in Castle Park show Dunbar to have had a settled community a few centuries BC. Believed to be synonymous with the Dynbaer of Eddius around 680AD, it was a king's vill and prison to Bishop Wilfrid. At that time it was part of the kingdom of Northumbria. Burnt by Kenneth McAlpin in the 9th century it passed to Scotland along with Lothian in the next century. Dunbar and land in the Merse (hence March) granted to the exiled earl Gospatrick of Northumbria by Malcolm Canmore (to whom he may have been full cousin) during 1072. Gospatrick founded the family of Dunbar, earls of Dunbar and March until the 15th century. The town became successively a baronial burgh and royal burgh (1370) and grew slowly under the shadow of the great castle of the earls. Castle and town were contended often between Scotland and England. The former was 'impregnable' and withstood many seiges; the latter was burnt, frequently. Major battles were fought nearby in 1296 and 1650. After the union of crowns the castle was slighted (deliberately ruined) and the town flourished as an agricultural centre and fishing port. Gained a reputation as a seaside holiday and golfing resort in the 19th century, the 'bright and breezy burgh' famous for its 'bracing air'. Agriculture remains important, but fishing has declined. Its main manufactures are cement at Oxwell Mains and the Scottish Ales of Belhaven Brewery. A large portion of the workforce now commute to Edinburgh or further afield.

Dunbar is also noted as the birth place of the ecologist John Muir