Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

COLDINGHAM
is crowned by the ancient Priory. Fairs are held on
the second Tuesday, old style, of July and October.
Pop. (1861) 655, (1871) 647, (1881) 572.
The parish contains also the villages of Coldingham
Shore, Reston, Auchencraw, and Grant's House. It is
bounded N and NE by the German Ocean, E by Eye-
mouth and Ayton, SE by Ay ton, S by Chirnside, SW
by Bunkle, W by Abbey St Bathans and Oldhamstoeks
(detached), andNW by Cockburnspath. Its length from
Eto W varies between 2| and 7§ miles, its breadth from
N to S between 3 and 7J miles ; and its area is 24,325J
acres, of which 233 are foreshore, and 71f water, while
80§ belong to Highlaws, a detached portion, surrounded
by Eyemouth parish. A stretch of the shore at Colding-
ham Sands and the farm of Northfield is smooth and of
tolerably easy access ; but mostly the coast is bold and
rock-bound, its cave-pierced clifl's of porphyry and grey-
wacke, the haunt of myriads of sea-fowl, rising steeply
from the sea to heights of from 257 to 710 feet. Its ex-
tent within Coldingham is fully 10 miles, if one follows
all the indentations and promontories, chief of which
latter are those of St Abbs and Fast Castle, 2i miles
NNE and 4 NW of the village. Within 300 yards but
400 feet above the level of the ocean, 1 mile WSW of
St Abbs Head, lies Coldingham Loch, a bleak, triangu-
lar lake, which, measuring 3 by 2 furlongs, is several
fathoms deep, and contains abundance of perch. Eye
Water, first running If mile NNE along the Oldham-
stoeks border, from Grant's House station next winds 8
miles ESE through the southern interior, and then
flows If mile SE, either on or near to the boundary with
Ayton, 2 miles of which have already been traced by
Ale Water, rising in and flowing through this parish.
Dulaw, Abbey, and three or four more burns run right
to the sea ; and, indeed, the whole surface is channelled
by innumerable rivulets. From E to W it attains, to
the N of the Ale, 387 feet above sea-level near White-
cross, 310 at St Abbs Head, 528 at Earnsheugh, 448
near Boggangreen, 659 at Baskinbrae, 743 at Cross Law,
715 at Laverock Law, 644 at Brown Big, and 710 near
the site of Soldiers Dyke ; between the Ale and the
Eye, 660 near Hillend, 782 at Houndwood Camp, 738
at Drone Hill, 686 at Cowel Hill, and 653 at the site of
St David's Cairn ; to the S of the Eye, 432 near Stone-
shiel, 503 at Greenhead, 860 at Horsley Hill, 614 near
Brockholes, and 560 at Brockkole Hill — heights that be-
long to an eastern extension of the Lammermuirs. The
rocks are chiefly Silurian, with intrusions, however, of
trap ; the soils are various and not particularly fertile.
A considerable aggregate of flat arable land forms the
bottom of the valleys ; and just about the middle of the
parish is ' Coldingham Moor,' a tract of between 5000
and 6000 acres, which, once a mixture of moor, forest,
and moss, looked in last century a treeless waste, but
now in great measure has been reclaimed and brought
under the plough. About 500 acres are clothed with
plantation, 100 with natural wood. Mansions are Cold-
ingham Law House, Homefield, Highlaws, Press House,
Templehall House, Berrybank, Coveyheugh, Fairlaw
House, Houndwood House, Newmains, Renton House,
Stoneshiel House, and Sunnyside; and 12 proprietors
hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 25 of
between £100 and £500, 6 of from £50 to £100, and 22
of from £20 to £50. A native was Geo. Dunbar (1774-
1851), Greek Professor in Edinburgh University. Fast
Castle is a principal antiquity ; and at Renton, at
Houndwood, at East and West Preston, were fortalices
or castles belonging to Logan of Restalrig, its wicked
lord, all of which were demolished during last century
to furnish building materials. Traces of four camps —
two native and two Roman — are on the heights to the
W and S of St Abbs ; and on St Abbs stood Ebba's
monastery. It seems, however, thence to have been
transferred to the after site of the Benedictine priory,
where foundations were excavated in 1854 of an earlier
church with circular E apse. The priory itself was
founded or refounded in 1098 by Eadgar, King of the
Scots, the son of Malcolm Ceannmor and St Margaret,
he having wrested the sceptre from Donald, with Wil-
276
COLDSTREAM
liam Rufus' assistance, and fighting beneath the banner
of St Cuthbert. To St Cuthbert, then, with SS Mary
and Ebba, he consecrated this his votive offering, and
granted it to St Cuthbert's canons regular of Durham.
So that, though situate in Scotland, and though en-
dowed by Scottish kings and nobles, Coldingham priory
was long subordinate to the English Church, which ex-
ercised over it absolute control, and appropriated great
part of its extensive revenues. In 1488 an attempt to
suppress it and annex its property to the Chapel Royal
of Stirling led to the Douglas rebellion which, ending
with James III.'s downfall at Sauchie Burn, left the
Homes masters of Coldingham till 1504. An Act of
that year annexed it to the Crown ; and in 1509 it was
finally severed from Durham, and placed under the
Abbey of Dunfermline. So it continued till 1560, when
it shared in the fate of other religious houses. Its
nearness to the Border had exposed it to frequent calami-
ties ; and thrice it sustained great hurt by fire — in 1216,
1430, and 1545. Cromwell, too, did great damage to
the buildings, which later served for quarry to the
village ; so that little remains now to show their former
glories but the E and N walls of the choir of the church,
semi-Norman without, and lapsing into almost First
Pointed within. Cruciform in plan, this church con-
sisted of a nave and choir, each 90 by 25 feet, with a
transept, 41 by 34, at whose NW angle a massive square
tower, which fell little more than a century since, up-
rose to a height of 90 feet and upwards. The choir,
patched up into a parish church, was restored (1854-55)
at a cost of £2200, including £625 from the Board of
Works. The W and S walls of 1662 were then rebuilt,
and the corner towers carried up to their original height ;
the whitewash was removed from the exquisite carvings,
a flat stained-wood roof introduced, aS porch added, and
the interior rebenched, containing now 410 sittings.
The result is creditable to the early restorers. In the
presbytery of Chirnside and synod of Merse and Teviot-
dale, the civil parish has been, since 1851, divided into
the quoad sacra parishes of Coldingham and Hotjnd-
wood, the former a living worth £397. In it 3 public
schools — Coldingham, Coldingham Moor, and Colding-
ham Shore — with respective accommodation for 190, 32,
and 91 children, had (1880) an average attendance of
131, 34, and 63, and grants of £96, 12s., £40, 6s., and
£54, Is. 6d. ; Houndwood containing 3 other public
schools. Valuation (18S2) £31,973, 17s. Pop. of civil
parish (1801) 2391, (1831) 2668, (1861) 3241, (1871)
3093, (1S81) 3159 ; of quoad sacra parish (1881) 1644 ;
of registration district (1881) 2675. — Ord. Sur., sh. 34,
1864. See A. Carr's History of Coldingham Priory
(Edinb. 1836); J. Raines' Correspondence, Inventories, Ac-
count Soils, and Law Proceedings of the Priory of
Coldingham (Surtees Soc, Durham, 1841) ; and W. K.
Hunter's History of the Priory of Coldingham (Edinb.
1858).
Coldinghamshire, an ancient jurisdiction in Berwick-
shire, comprehending the parishes of Coldingham, Eye-
mouth, Ayton, Lamberton, and Aldcambus, and parts
of the parishes of Mordington, Foulden, Chirnside,
Bunkle, and Cockburnspath, in all amounting to about
one-eighth of the entire area of the county. The nature
of the jurisdiction is ill defined, but seems to have been
chiefly, if not wholly, ecclesiastical, and connected with
Coldingham Priory.
Coldingham Shore, a fishing village in Coldingham
parish, Berwickshire, 1J mileNE of Coldingham village.
It has a public school and a boat harbour, formed in
1833 at a cost of £1200 ; and it carries on fishing for
herrings, cod, haddocks, turbot, lobster, and crabs,
whilst conducting an extensive trade in the curing of
herrings. Three of its fishers were lost in the great gale
of 14 Oct. 1881. Pop. (1881) 298.
Coldrochie. See Moneydie.
Coldside, a hamlet in the parish and 5 miles NE of
the village of Canonbie, SE Dumfriesshire.
Coldstone. See Logie-Coldstone.
Coldstream, a Border town and parish of S Berwick-
shire. The town, 100 feet above sea-level, stands on the