St Combs was a planned village built in 1785 as a fishing village for the estate of Cairnglass. There would have been a village/settlement of sorts here much earlier since there was a church here. This was abandoned in 1607 when the new parish church was built.

Map

Charlestown is now considered to be a part of St Combs but it was once a village in its own right.

Being a planned village, St Combs was laid out in an orderly manner. Initially it consisted of a single row of houses  (now those on the west side of Charles Street). Building started around 1785 and later expansion saw houses added on the other side of the street by 1795.

The houses were built like those in so many other fishing villages with their gable end facing the sea. Unlike most the houses were provided with a sizable garden. Some say that this was due to the original inhabitants being crofter-fishermen. It is just as likely that the laird, Charles Gordon of Cairness, wanted the houses built to his plan and saw a tidy, well laid out village on his estate as a feather in his cap.

Some say that St Combs was built to replace the village of Boatlea but in fact the two villages co-existed for a time. The 2 villages lay in different estates - Boatlea in Lonmay and St Combs in Cairness. St Combs was built as a competitor to Boatlea and fishermen were probably drawn from Boatlea by various incentives provided by the laird and the prospect of easier access to the sea. It is only in 1795 that the two estates came under the ownership of a single laird, Charles Gordon. From that point on Boatlea was probably left to run down in favour of St Combs and it eventually became totally abandoned.