Dunbar

Dunbar (dʌnˈbɑːr) is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and gave its name to an ecclesiastical and civil parish. The parish extends around east to west and is deep at its greatest extent, or , and contains the villages of West Barns, Belhaven, and East Barns (abandoned) and several hamlets and farms. The town is served by Dunbar railway station with links to Edinburgh and the rest of Scotland, as well as London and stations along the north-east England corridor. Dunbar has a harbour dating from 1574 and is home to the Dunbar Lifeboat Station, the second-oldest RNLI station in Scotland. Dunbar is the birthplace of the explorer, naturalist, and influential conservationist John Muir. The house in which Muir was born is located on the High Street, and has been converted into a museum. There is also a commemorative statue beside the town clock, and John Muir Country Park is located to the north-west of the town. The eastern section of the John Muir Way coastal path starts from the harbour. One of the two campuses to Dunbar Primary School: John Muir Campus, is named in his honour. A sculpture, The DunBear, the focal point of the DunBear Park mixed-use development, was erected as a tribute to John Muir and his role in the establishment of National Parks in the USA. In its present form, the name Dunbar is derived from its Gaelic equivalent (modern Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Barra), meaning "summit fort". That itself is probably a Gaelicisation of the Cumbric form din-bar, with the same meaning. This form seems to be attested as Dynbaer in the seventh-century Vita Sancti Wilfrithi. Excavations in advance of a housing development by CFA Archaeology, in 2003, found the remains of a later Bronze Age/early Iron Age (800–540 BC) person, indicating that people were living in the area during that time.