July 2026
This month, Dr James Herring features 3 significant fires that have occurred in Dunbar – one store, one church. and one hotel.
The photo above, one of a number donated to DDHS by Ray Scoble, shows the flames and smoke leaping and billowing out of McCathur’s Stores at the Old Harbour. The fire could be seen for miles around the town and from the countryside, such was its ferocity. The BBC reported on 27.10.2025 A fire has broken out at 17th-century fisherman’s storehouse building in East Lothian. Four fire engines and a height appliance were dispatched to the incident at the B-Listed McArthur’s Storehouse near Dunbar harbour on Monday afternoon. Several nearby buildings were evacuated as a precautionary measure, while Shore Street and Lamer Street were closed to pedestrians and vehicles.
In terms of history, The Cockburn Asociation described it as A rare example of an early 17th century harbour warehouse and one of the oldest surviving in Scotland. This category B listed building has a distinctive character derived from its position and origins as a quayside granary. Latterly used as a store and workshop by the Dunbar fishermen, by the turn of the millennium the building had fallen into a state of advanced disrepair and dilapidation. The building was originally known as Spott’s Girnell i.e. granary.
The second fire featured is that of Dunbar Parish Church. In an article about the church, Stephen Bunyan wrote Disaster struck on the night of Saturday, 3rd January 1987 when the church was virtually destroyed by fire. Following the fire the Kirk Session invited Messrs. Campbell and Arnott, Architects, to draw up plans for the re-building of the church.To see a video of the fire, go to this Youtube site and scroll to 3.32. An interview about the fire with church elder Ian Hastie can be viewed here. The East Lothian Courier on the 9th January reported that the fire had started in the roof and reduced the building to a sandstone shell. The origins of the church date back to 1342 and you can read a concise history of the church here.
The third fire, shown in the photo above, took place on 4th Febrary 1989 and destroyed most of the Bellevue Hotel, which was later demolished and is today the site of McCarthy and Stone’s Bellevue Flats. This site has an interesting history of the hotel and states They incorporated strong ornamental elements revived from post-reformation Scottish tower house architecture, making sure the Belle-Vue was both aesthetically pleasing and practical. Inspired heavily by the Arts and Crafts Movement, nature symbolism was built into every facet of the hotel. The four seasons were represented over the four main guest floors. There were 12 public rooms for each month, 52 bedrooms for the weeks within a year, seven bathrooms for the days in a week and an impressive 365 windowpanes for days of the year!
The hotel was very popular in the 1950s and 1960s, the heyday of tourism in Dunbar, and featured in many of the brochures during this period. Local people can remember dances and dinners (e.g. Rotary Club) at the hotel.
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