Administrative Boundary of East Lothian

About East Lothian

East Lothian is a council area in southeast Scotland. Covering approximately 679 square kilometres of agricultural lowland, coastal links, and the volcanic hills of the Lammermuirs, East Lothian had a population of approximately 107,000 at the 2022 Census. The council area — one of the most productive agricultural districts in Scotland, known as "the Garden of Scotland" — contains the birthplace of John Muir (the "Father of the National Parks"), the spectacular coastal castles of Tantallon and Dirleton, some of the world's finest golf courses, and the Bass Rock — one of the largest gannet colonies in the world. John Muir and Dunbar John Muir (1838–1914) — the Scottish-American naturalist, writer, and conservationist who is the most important figure in the history of nature conservation in the United States — was born in Dunbar on 21 April 1838. His family emigrated to Wisconsin when he was 11 years old, but Muir always credited his childhood exploration of the East Lothian coast and the surrounding countryside with forming his love of wild nature. Muir founded the Sierra Club in 1892, campaigned successfully for the creation of Yosemite National Park, and his advocacy and writings (including My First Summer in the Sierra and The Mountains of California) shaped the entire American national parks movement. The John Muir Birthplace Museum in Dunbar, and the John Muir Country Park — a coastal park along the East Lothian shore — commemorate his legacy. Tantallon Castle and the Bass Rock Tantallon Castle — a spectacular promontory fortress on the East Lothian coast three miles east of North Berwick — is one of the most dramatically sited castles in Scotland, its massive curtain wall stretching across the promontory, with the sea on three sides; it was the stronghold of the Red Douglas earls and withstood numerous sieges until reduced by Cromwellian artillery in 1651. The Bass Rock — a 107-metre volcanic plug rising from the Firth of Forth one mile offshore from North Berwick — is one of the largest single-rock seabird colonies in the world, home to approximately 150,000 northern gannets in the breeding season (making it the world's largest single gannet colony), along with thousands of puffins, razorbills, guillemots, and kittiwakes. Golf and the Coastal Links East Lothian is one of the great golfing landscapes of the world, its links courses along the Firth of Forth coast being among the oldest and most celebrated in golf. Muirfield — the home of The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, the oldest golf club in the world (founded 1744) — has hosted The Open Championship more times than any other course. North Berwick Golf Club, Gullane Golf Club, Longniddry, Luffness, Kilspindie, Whitekirk, and Renaissance Club form one of the most concentrated collections of fine links courses in the world. GIS and Boundary Data The administrative boundary of East Lothian Council is available for free download in GeoJSON and KML formats, sourced from the OS Open Geography portal (Crown copyright 2024). Compatible with QGIS, ArcGIS, Mapbox, and Google Earth, the dataset supports coastal heritage mapping, gannet colony monitoring, golf course geography, agricultural landscape analysis, and demographic research across the East Lothian council area.

📍 Administrative boundary of East Lothian county