The Royal Burgh of North Berwick coat of arms

This was the site of many volcanic eruptions and these famous landmarks are the result of the mouth of the volcano being choked with its own molten lava, forming a plug when extinct. During the ice-age, Scotland was covered in a frozen glacial blanket that rubbed and wore away the volcanic ash and soft sedimentary layers. When the glacier receded it exposed the black rock visible today.

The oldest rock in the area can be seen at Smiley Knowe. In both the East and West Bays, there is evidence of lava-flow of the most extensive nature with enormous deposits of volcanic ash or scoriae, forming the flat red tuffs visible at low tide. Farther east the colour changes to green and a basalt dyke of considerable length appears on the shore opposite the Leithies. Tuff is much easier to work than basalt and the resulting Red Leck in Milsey Bay was quarried for building and oven lining in the late Middle Ages. Professor Fleming of Edinburgh University was the first to observe the marks of glacial action on the striated rocks at the Auld Kirk in 1846.

According to some writers the first inhabitants of North Berwick came from the Elbe, they settled on the coast where water was available and their principal food was shell fish gathered from the rocks. There are traces of four such settlements in the district, first and most important was on the hill, above the west beach. A midden containing a large number of shells of edible species were found in the grounds of Tusculum, the house at number 8 York Road. Their burial ground was between that house and the shore, which was discovered when the gasworks were being erected close to what is now the eighteenth fairway on the West Links. Since ancient times there was a burn in this area which flowed into the sea, and was crossed by a timber footbridge, still being used in 1854.

There was another settlement east of the Eil Burn where several internments and urns were found. These internments are believed to date from the beginning of the Christian era. The fourth settlement was above the Leithies on the Rhodes Farm where a kitchen midden was found, it contained a stratum of shells, pieces of broken pottery, fragments of bones and wood ashes. A similar site was also detected on Castle Hill, the grassy mound between Marine Parade and Tantallon Terrace, where a castle once stood owned by the Earls of Fife.

On the south of Berwick Law there is evidence of at least eighteen hut circles, rich middens and a field system dating from 2000 years ago. There is also the remains of a defensive stone dyke and ramparts which were not just military artifacts but show that farming and a peaceful settlement was a feature here. Activity in more recent times can also be found near the summit, notably a rare example of a stone-built Napoleonic period watch-tower with the outline of a garden.

During the upgrading of the town water mains in October 2002 deposits of animal bones, shellfish and fragments of pottery were discovered buried beneath the High Street. Several midden layers were traced less than half-a-metre below the surface, dating from the 14th century. The material contained a variety of shellfish, mediaeval pottery and bones from sheep and cattle lodged between layers of sand. The largest concentration was found west of the Council Chambers, consistent with a midden pile where the inhabitants would discard their waste into the street.

In May 2003, the foundations of a 15th century wall was discovered in Melbourne Place, leading to speculation that this was the town's eastern boundary wall. This theory was reinforced when the shell and bone fragments discovered in East Road came to an abrupt end opposite the Vennel in line with what may have been the boundary wall.

The remains of an old metal road made up of large red sandstone blocks was exposed 30cm beneath Victoria Road. According to the archaeologists, the road from Quality Street to Victoria Road is the oldest road in the burgh, and among the artefacts unearthed in Quality Street was a whale bone scarred with the marks of a sharpe implement similar to a cooking knife.

The records suggest that a form of Celtic language similar to Welsh, Cornish and Breton was spoken in East Lothian in post-Roman times. During the Roman occupation of Lowland Scotland, Traprain Law which literally translated means the hill of staves because of the wooden fortifications, was an important Roman settlement. Later this site was the tribal capital for the Votadini, the main tribe of the Lothians who were a peaceful people despite their Celtic and Viking ornamentation on their weaponry. A sculpture depicting the Votadini tribal carvings can be seen in the grounds of the supermarket in Dunbar Road.

The Anglo-Saxons then moved north pushing the local tribes westwards and establishing the Kingdom of Northumbria from the Humber to the Forth. In the eleventh century the King of Scots through conquest reclaimed the territory as part of Scotland and the Gaelic language was heard for the first time in East Lothian.

The name North Berwick means North 'barley farmstead'. Bere in Old English means 'barley' and wic in Old English is 'farmstead'. The word North was applied to distinguish this Berwick from Berwick-upon-Tweed, which throughout the Middle Ages the Scots called South Berwick. It was recorded as Northberwyk in 1250.