Dunbar
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- This article is about Dunbar in Scotland. See also Dunbar (disambiguation)
Image:Scodunbarmap.png Image:Dunbar-John Muir beach.JPG The Royal Burgh of Dunbar is a burgh in East Lothian on the southeast coast of Scotland, approximately 30 miles east of Edinburgh.
Archaeological excavations in Castle Park show Dunbar to have had a settled community a few centuries BC. Believed to be synonymous with the Dynbaer of Eddius around 680AD, it was a king's vill and prison to Bishop Wilfrid. At that time it was part of the kingdom of Northumbria.
Burnt by Kenneth McAlpin in the 9th century it passed to Scotland along with Lothian in the next century. Dunbar and land in the Merse (hence March) granted to the exiled earl Gospatrick of Northumbria by Malcolm Canmore (to whom he may have been full cousin) during 1072. Gospatrick founded the family of Dunbar, earls of Dunbar and March until the 15th century.
The town became successively a baronial burgh and royal burgh (1370) and grew slowly under the shadow of the great castle of the earls. Scotland and England contended often for possession of the castle and town. The former was 'impregnable' and withstood many sieges; the latter was burnt, frequently. Major battles were fought nearby in 1296 and 1650. The Battle of Dunbar (1650) was fought during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms between a Scottish Covenanter army and English Parliamentarians led by Oliver Cromwell. The Scots were routed, leading to the overthrow of the monarchy and the occupation of Scotland.
The castle had been slighted (deliberately ruined) in 1568 but the town flourished as an agricultural centre and fishing port despite tempestuous times in the 17th and early 18th centuries. It gained a reputation as a seaside holiday and golfing resort in the 19th century, the 'bright and breezy burgh' famous for its 'bracing air'. Due to its geographical location, Dunbar receives less rain and more hours of direct sunshine per year than anywhere else in Scotland (according to the Met Office). The town has begun to be referred to by locals as 'Sunny Dunny', after a local radio host popularised the term. Agriculture remains important, but fishing has declined. Its main manufactures are cement at Oxwell Mains and the Scottish Ales of Belhaven Brewery. Another large local employer is Torness Nuclear Power Station. A large portion of the workforce now commute to Edinburgh or further afield.
A national census in 2001 reported the population of the town to be 6,354. In the 1950s Dunbar was identified as an appropriate area for increased housing development, and as a result many new houses have been built on the southern periphery of the town, increasing the population substantially.
Dunbar is noted as the birthplace of the explorer, naturalist and conservationist John Muir. Located to the northwest of the town is the John Muir Country Park.