And we’ll try to unpick this riddle for you after our visit to St Abbs, ushering in Scotland’s whisky man’s town with no bar.
Brewer Andrew Usher (see what we did there) is the man at the heart of the story.
Transforming a Scottish Borders fishing village from Coldingham Shore into the bustling tourist spot it is today.
Usher’s skills in decanting the then-harsh whisky into a product meant Scotland could sell their drink to the world.
Abbs Army
All of which made a pretty penny for Andrew who, proud Borderer that he is, put the money back into St Abbs.
Especially for the harbour and the village with St Abbs having suffered particularly badly.
In the storm of 1881 when 189 fishermen across the Berwickshire coast lost their lives.
With Jill Watson’s statue of women and children Women and Bairns at the head outside the visitor centre.
Capturing the loss poignantly of Black Friday, October 14.
A different world
At this point Victorian Usher considered his career of choice and decided not to have a bar in the village.
Now if you think St Abbs looks familiar you will have outed yourself as a comic books fan.
With St Abbs the template for New Asgard in the Marvel film Avengers: Endgame.
Today’s St Abbs is more a throwback to a gentler time than a futuristic vision.
And the best place to start is at the Visitor Centre where you can learn too of other notable St Abbians.
And 7th-century Northumbrian princess and abbess St Aebbe.
Who established a religious house at Kirk Hill, next to the rocky headland now known as St Abb’s Head.
Fishermen’s friend
And suffragette Isabel Cowe, the youngest of eight children of a fisherman father killed at sea.
And who campaigned and fundraised for St Abbs to have its own lifeboat.
She also took part in the rescue of passengers and crew from the ship Glanmire when it floundered in Coldingham Bay.
Now following the theme of if you want something done ask a busy woman Isabel wasn’t finished there.
And owned the St Abbs Haven boarding house from 1914 to 1931 and was a popular figure in the village.
While in her spare time she worked with her friend and activist Jane Hay in the Women’s Freedom League.
Cowe was an organiser of the 400-mile Scottish Suffrage March from Edinburgh to Downing Street in 1912.
And is now commemorated in the Isabel Cowe memorial garden near St Abbs.
And St Abbian and Abbianphiles
Now it is St Abbs way to mark St Abbian and Abbianphiles along their coastal walks.
All of which you will see for yourself on whichever way you take.
We took the gentle hour-long round-trip Coldingham Beach stroll from Ebbcars Cafe to the Coldingham Beach Cafe.
Stopping and yes taking a seat for a blether as recommended by Bill Gray.
Wherever you choose to go in St Abbs the locals will be glad to have a blether.
In either cafe, at the antiquaries hut, the Visitor Centre and all you meet along the way.
Ushering in a new era
And you’ll be glad, and we imagine Andrew Usher will to, to know that you can imbibe of bottled beer and wine at Ebbcars Cafe.
And before you reluctantly leave the village to return to North Berwick. 30 miles up the road.
Or 48 miles to Edinburgh while in the other direction you’re just 17 miles to the English border and 75 miles to Newcastle.
Perhaps raise a glass, and make sure you don’t flout the drink limits to Scotland’s whisky man.