Arbroath

Smokie craft at the harbour

On the harbour side, M & M Spink have been salting haddock in brine, tying it in pairs by the tail, and hot-smoking it over hardwood embers since 1965. This is an Arbroath smokie, and since 2004 it has held Protected Geographical Indication status, which means the genuine article can only be made within five miles of where you are standing. The tradition actually started up the coast at Auchmithie, a smaller fishing village, before the town council lured the families down to Arbroath's bigger harbour.

Iain R. Spink, "The Arbroath Smokie Man," is the fifth generation of his family in the seafood trade. He smokes his haddock over a whisky barrel, the old way, a method that had effectively died out by the 1960s and which he had to relearn. His father campaigned to secure the smokie's PGI status. He has also written a book of thirty smokie dishes.

Seafood and the cliff trail

You will want to eat one. The Old Boatyard, down by the harbour, has been serving local seafood for close to twenty years and won VisitScotland's Taste of Scotland Award. If you walk the three miles up to Auchmithie, the But 'n' Ben sits above the old harbour and is known for its smokie pancakes and fish and chips made to order.

That walk is the one to do. The Seaton Cliffs trail runs along red Devonian sandstone that formed some 400 million years ago and has since been carved into an arch called the Needle E'e, a sea stack called the Deil's Heid, and caves with names like the Mermaid's Kirk. Much of it is a wildlife reserve, and there are dolphins offshore if you are lucky. The cliff edges are not stable, so stay on the path. Buses run back from Auchmithie, so you can walk out and ride home.

Old pubs and independence

The pubs are unfussy. The Foundry Bar on East Mary Street has been open since 1861 and keeps its original counter with painted panels and Swan Vesta match-strikers, plus a wooden gantry that reaches to the ceiling and is about fifty years old. There is a flower-filled beer garden, live Scottish music at weekends, and a free jukebox. No cask ale, though. The Old Brewhouse, opposite the waterfront in a building from the 1600s, does Aberdeen Angus steak and smokies, and lets a handful of sea-view rooms.

Then there is the abbey, red sandstone and roofless, founded in 1178 by King William the Lion. In 1320 a letter was drafted here asserting Scottish independence — the Declaration of Arbroath, signed by thirty-nine nobles and later thought to have influenced the American one. The circular window in the south gable, the "Round O," once held a beacon fire to guide the fishing fleet home. That is why Arbroath folk are the Red Lichties, and why the football club at Gayfield Park carries the name. The ground sits about five metres from the high-tide line, reputedly the closest to the sea in Europe. Arbroath FC once beat Bon Accord 36–0, in 1885, which is still a world record.

Trains, then fish

Trains run to Dundee in twenty-one minutes, two or three an hour. Most people, though, come for the fish.