At the north-western tip of St Abb’s Head, just beyond the peninsula’s 19th-century lighthouse, there is a small rocky cove known as Pettico Wick.
Ahead, the cliffs slant and stagger like a buck-toothed smile towards the low light of the setting sun.
This isn’t a beach for sunbathers and castle builders, but instead naturalists. In the summer months, thousands of seabirds – including guillemots, fulmars, kittiwakes and puffins – nest on the bluffs that surround the beach. Keep an eye out for northern gannets tracking the coastline and harpooning the seas, and the looming silhouettes of skuas in the skies overhead.
The bay is considered to be one of the best places in Britain for shore diving, with superb water quality, a plethora of aquatic life and several atmospheric shipwrecks to explore.
