Aberlady is a coastal village in the Scottish council area of East Lothian.HistoryEtymologically, Aberlady seems to be a Cumbric place-name meaning something like 'bushy river mouth' (cognate with Welsh aber 'river mouth' and llusog 'bushy').In the Middle Ages, Aberlady was an important harbour for fishing, sealing, and whaling and was designated "Port of Haddington" by a 1633 Act of Parliament. However, its origins are much earlier.Aberlady had strong links with the monasteries at Iona and Lindisfarne from the 7th century, and its role was to facilitate the pilgrim traffic between the two sites. Previous archaeological excavations have shown traces of a Culdee chapel, and Pope Gregory X made reference to the church which he called "Aberlefdi". The 8th century Aberlady Cross fragment can be seen at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. A reconstruction of this finely carved cross was erected in 2011 by Aberlady Conservation & History Society.Aberlady Parish Church dates back to the 15th century. It was re-built in 1887. In 1986, the parishes of Aberlady and Gullane were merged, and the Manse is now in Gullane.The "Aberlady Heritage Project" is a community-led project, and in 2008 it surveyed three sites - the medieval harbour quay commissioned in 1535, the Iron Age fort and associated souterrain at Kilspindie, and the Anglo-Saxon site at the Glebe. Aberlady boasts the largest collection of stray Anglo-Saxon finds yet discovered in Scotland.
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