The hamlet that gives its name to the Township of High Buston stands on a ridge about a mile from the seashore and commands extensive views from Alnmouth to Cresswell point. The Township has an area of 721 acres extending from the sea westward for about 2 1/4 miles to the boarders of Shilbottle parish.


Notices of Butliston in the early records "can only be apportioned between Low Buston and High Buston by bearing in mind that Low Buston is a member of the Barony of Wark-on-Tweed and High Buston is that of Walkworth".

In 1899 the hamlet of High Buston comprised some 12 to 13 houses and cottages arranged in two irregular lines one on either side of the village street. At the east end of the hamlet sheltered by a clump of elm and ash trees is the former residence of the Buston family, a structure of the last century. Near to it is a house, once the village alehouse called the Plough kept by Robert Common from a long standing High Buston family and an ingenious millwright and cartwright who built agricultural machinery.

The existing house built by Thomas Buston c 1785  was for a while a country hotel where my wife Jane and I have stayed. We had use of the main bedroom for one night and for the one and only time in my life experienced a transcendental visitation comprising of a tapping on the window in the early hours which went on for some time. Believe me or not but I swear I was wide awake and it did happen. Was my Great Great Great Grandfather trying to attract my attention for a catch up chat?