A doctor, a field above the sea, and ninety years of the same family deciding what happens next.
He believed in the health value of sea air and of the East Lothian coast, and bought fifteen acres on the rise above North Berwick. At that point it was a camping field.
Tents first, then tourers. Families came for the summer, walked down to the beach, and came back the following year.
Static caravans took over from most of the camping, and the park took the shape it has now — pitches spread through mature planting rather than laid out in rows.
Hot tub lodges on the upper ground, gold caravans, glamping cabins and a superior studio. The fourth generation of the family runs the park.
The park is approaching its centenary. The plan is to keep investing in the accommodation without changing what the place is for.
A holiday park is an unusual business in that its best customers are often the ones who were brought here by their parents. Many of our guests first came to Gilsland as children and now book for children of their own. Some are on the third round of that.
Others have gone a step further and bought a holiday home on the park, which gives them the same fifteen acres to come back to whenever they want it.
Lodges, holiday homes, glamping cabins and studios, twenty minutes on foot from the sand.