From 1945, public transport consisted of the SMT (operated by Stark’s Bus Company) bus on Saturdays only at 2pm to Dunbar and at 5pm and 8pm from Dunbar to Spott; there was no transport later. The fare was thru’pence (1.25p). Buses left the post office in Dunbar and stopped at Rose Cottage in Spott. One of the drivers was ‘Dazzler’ Ross who wore a long gabardine coat tied with a broad belt and a ‘bunnet’. This service stopped in the late 1950s.
In 1968, the Post Bus Service – which collected and transported passengers as well as the post – started (the first in Scotland) leaving Spott on Monday to Saturday at 10am and returning from Dunbar at 2pm.
The increased dominance of the private car has changed the community spirit of the parish; the number of commuters and retired people living in the area has increased and most of them drive through the village without meeting the residents. The parish has become fragmented into its various parts, the Doon, The Square and so on.
There are a number of public rights of way in the parish: Halls to Lauder; Halls to Friarsdykes and the Whiteadder; Brunt Road via Spott West Mains to Little Pinkerton; Spott village to Pleasance; Spott village to Wester Broomhouse; Doon to Little Pinkerton; A1 to Little Pinkerton (the field is now ploughed, so no access).
Police
Before 1945, the policeman from Belhaven would cycle through the village at least once a day. The last to do so was Jimmy Aitcheson, who retired in 1943. Spott was a crime-free area (apart from poaching) and the only crime remembered was the theft of sweeties from Mrs Scambler’s shop; it is not recorded that the thief was caught! The occasional act of vandalism – in particular the defacement of the village signpost – has been the only crime in the recent past. In 2000 the police car from Dunbar drives through occasionally.