Haddington RiverStories – History, Heritage and Nature

Join us for an approximately two-hour guided walk along the River Tyne through Haddington, exploring the fascinating relationship between the town, its river, its industries and its people.

Led by Cat Wright of the Forth Rivers Trust and Mike Thornton of Balanced Horizon. 

Route: West Mills Weir → Poldrate Mill → Haddington town centre → Nungate Bridge → River Tyne → Amisfield Walled Garden → Haddington

Duration: Approximately 2 hours

This is a walk combining local history, industrial heritage, architecture, community stories and natural history, offering an insight into how the River Tyne has shaped Haddington over hundreds of years — and how the river continues to support wildlife and people today.

Starting at West Mills Weir, the walk follows the historic lade towards Poldrate Mill, discovering how the River Tyne was harnessed to power Haddington's mills and industries. Along the route we will explore the history of West Mills, its textile and tartan production, and the former Simpson Malting, which produced malt for the brewing and whisky industries. The walk will also include stories and personal recollections of working life at the maltings.

Continuing through the town, we will visit Poldrate Mill, Haddington Parish Church of St Mary's, the avenue of trees associated with the town's historic trade guilds, and Lady Kitty's Garden and Doocot. At Nungate Bridge, we will explore the area's important role in Haddington's history, including the former tannery and the bridge's significance as an historic route towards Edinburgh.

The walk then returns to the River Tyne, passing the cemetery and Commonwealth War Graves, before following the riverside towards the cascades. Here the focus turns towards the natural history and ecology of the river, including river habitats, aquatic invertebrates, water quality and the importance of the Tyne as a living ecosystem.

The route continues past the golf course to Abbey Bridge and Amisfield Walled Garden, where we will explore the history of the gardens before returning to Haddington.

For whom:

The tour is aimed at adults. Accompanied children are welcome. 

About the facilitators:

Mike Thornton works as a Senior Ecologist for Balanced Horizon, a local conservation charity, and is Project Lead for Restoration Tyne, a landscape scale river restoration programme currently in its development phase. Mike has worked in nature conservation for over thirty years, working in the voluntary, government and private sectors. He led the development phase of Riverwoods for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, a national programme of work to create a thriving network of river woodland across Scotland. As a resident of East Lothian he has a particularly good knowledge of the county and its natural history.