Belhaven Best
This cache has been placed on the John Muir Way near the edge of Belhaven Bay as a tribute to two names closely associated with the town of Dunbar. The cache is easily accessible either from the Car Park at the John Muir Country Park, N 56° 00.032 ; W 002° 33.652 , or from the Car Park at the end of the Shore Road, N 55° 59.990 ; W 002° 32.624. The path from the Shore Road CP is stroller accessible almost to the cache site.
The cache is in a magnetic key holder once again (from March 2021)
John Muir
John Muir was born in Dunbar on April 21st 1838. As a child he developed a deep love of the natural world around his home.
"When I was a boy in Scotland I was fond of everything that was wild ... I loved to wander in the fields to hear the birds sing, and along the shore to gaze and wonder at the shells and the seaweeds, eels and crabs in the pools when the tide was low; and best of all to watch the waves in awful storms thundering on the black headlands and craggy ruins of old Dunbar Castle."
At the age of ten he emigrated with his family to America. The family settled in Wisconsin where they became farmers and where John Muir attended university. In his twenties he travelled widely, eventually settling in California, and there established his reputation as a naturalist, explorer, mountaineer, farmer, geologist, writer, and, above all, pioneer of nature conservation.
He played a crucial role in creating Yosemite National Park, fought to save the giant redwoods of California and, in 1892, was a founder member and the first president of the Sierra Club, now the premier conservation body in California with a membership of over 600,000.
He strongly influenced President Theodore Roosevelt in creating other National Parks and, as a result of his lifelong struggle on behalf of wild places and wildlife, Americans have honoured Muir with the title of 'Father of Our National Parks'. He has been voted 'Most Famous Californian of All Time', appeared on two US postage stamps (the more recent a current issue) and more than 200 parks, woods, schools, etc., bear his name. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger chose John Muir’s face to be the symbol on the Californian quarter dollar coin minted in 2005.
For many millions of Californians, John Muir is as famous as Alexander Graham Bell or Andrew Carnegie, two other Scottish emigrants, and his writings are as celebrated as those of Robert Burns or Robert Louis Stevenson. Yet, until recently, in Britain he remained largely unknown and even in the land of his birth few Scots had heard of him.
Happily that is now changing and John Muir is being accorded the recognition that his achievements deserve. The John Muir Way runs from Musselburgh, at the western border of East Lothian to Cockburnspath, just over the eastern border, in Berwickshire. In Dunbar, the house in which he was born, at 128 High Street, has been opened as an interpretation centre telling the story of John Muir's life and the legacy of his contribution to the modern conservation movement.
Belhaven Brewery
Located approximately a mile (1.5 km) west of the centre of Dunbar in East Lothian the Belhaven Brewery was founded in 1719 and, until 2005, was the oldest surviving independent brewery in Scotland and one of the oldest in Britain. It is likely that brewing was originally carried out by Benedictine Monks on the land around 'Bele' (now Belhaven) granted to them by King David I (c. 1080 - 1153). Remains within the current buildings suggest a brewery existed on the site from at least the 16th Century and records show that Belhaven ale was supplied to soldiers garrisoned at nearby Dunbar Castle in the 1550s. On tasting the ale as he passed through the area in 1768, James Boswell noted that it was "the best small beer I ever had”. Although primarily serving the local population, the beer had, by the 19th Century, established a reputation as far afield as London and even Vienna, where it found favour with the Austrian Emperor, Francis II, who said “it was the Burgundy of Scotland, and famed as Bavaria is for its strong beers, it cannot produce the like”. The brewery buildings were reconstructed after fires in 1814 and 1887.
In the 18th century, there were over two dozen breweries in and around Dunbar. Most were small operations with one or two staff, so called ‘craft brewers’, who supplied a single inn or a few local customers. Only four of the larger breweries survived into the 19th century, and of those only the Belhaven Brewery survived to see the 20th, and now, the 21st century.
At one time known by the name of the Dudgeon and Company Brewery, the Belhaven Brewery was owned by the same family from the middle of the 18th century until 1972-3.
More recently, Belhaven has built its business on the popularity of 'real ales'. Of these the Belhaven Best is a confirmed favourite among beer connoisseurs.
In 2005, Belhaven Brewery was taken over by the Suffolk-based brewery Greene King. Greene King has stated that Belhaven will retain its brewery and brands following the takeover.