About north berwick holidays
We have been in business in North Berwick since 2003, when we took over the Westgate Gallery, but the business and the building that houses it has a much longer history.
It is recorded that a Prayer Meeting House was established on the site in 1778, the members of which eventually formed the congregation of the Abbey Church that was built further down the High Street in 1868.
In a departure from its religious beginnings, the site became a mercantile hub when in the second half of the 19th century, the Auld family built up a joinery and cabinet-making business that rode the wave of North Berwick’s growing reputation as a seaside and golfing resort. From furnishing the grand summer residences of the great and good and leasing out beach huts every summer season, to making coffins for those past enjoying the balmy sea air, Wm Auld & Son became a local institution. Sadly, with the demise of British seaside resorts the business eventually contracted, with the old cabinet-makers’ shop changing hands several times.
When we took over, it was a gallery, gift shop and coffee shop, as it still remains, but in a very different style. As well as transforming the business through developing the café and injecting new life into the gifts and arts, we started our holiday letting business.
In 2013 we acquired one of the tenement flats above the shop that was called Kingarth. In 2020 we started work to develop some of the retail space and stock rooms into another apartment which we have named Tregarth. We now market the two properties together as North Berwick Holidays.
Our aim is to allow visitors to enjoy the delights of North Berwick, which remains a fantastic seaside resort and visitor destination, befitting its long-established nickname of “The Biarritz of the North”.
Brenda and Roy Symon