Gilsland Park has belonged to the same family since the 1930s. Fifteen acres of East Lothian, a mile above North Berwick beach.
Dr Robert Macnair bought the site in the 1930s because he believed in the restorative value of sea air. It was a camping field then, on the rise above the town, with the firth in front of it and the Lammermuirs behind.
Ninety years later it is a holiday park with hot tub lodges, holiday homes, glamping cabins and studios — and it is still owned and run by his family, now in the fourth generation. Most of what has changed here is the accommodation. The reason people come back is the same as it was: space, quiet, and the beach twenty minutes downhill.
The people you deal with own the place and live with the results. There is no head office and no call centre.
Fifteen acres for the number of stays we have, with mature trees between them rather than a grid of vans.
No clubhouse, no entertainment programme. Families and couples who want the coast, not a resort.
The older parts of the park are kept to the standard of the newest, because guests notice the walk between them.
They come back with children of their own, and some with grandchildren. A number have gone further and bought a holiday home here.
Two pages in this section have no client copy and are not yet built: Our Team and Farm Education. Our Team needs names, roles and photographs; inventing staff is not an option. Farm Education has no brief at all — we do not know whether it is school visits, an animal area, or something else. Both are deliberately left out of the card row above so About does not link to blank pages. Also worth asking the family for real dates for the timeline on Our Story: when the first static vans arrived, when the lodges went in, and the names of the four generations.
Lodges, holiday homes, glamping cabins and studios, on the hill above North Berwick beach.