A Visit to North Berwick and a Walk to Musselburgh

On Wednesday Gaye and I headed up to Portobello to stay for a couple of days with John and Sandria. We arrived at 11.30am and after lunch headed out to the East Lothian coast to look at some of the many very posh Golf Courses and posh houses along that coast. We then went to North Berwick for a walk along the sea front.

Gaye, Sandria and John with the 187M North Berwick Law in the background.

North Berwick harbour looking a little bit crowded

The tidal paddling pool

Near the Seabird Centre

The Bass Rock

Sitting on the wall beside the beach. The plan was to have a walk the following day as John had worked out a 5 mile route along the sea shore from Portobello to Musselburgh, including the race course and the oldest Golf Course in the world. Unfortunately I was unwell on Wednesday night and had to come home early on Thursday morning so I missed the walk and lunch.

A toast to absent friends at the lunch after the walk. I had paid for the round of drinks. Photo courtesy of John. I was home by 3.00pm and had a Drs. appointment sorted for 4.10pm and hopefully will soon be on the road to recovery.

Nial, Ken, and Martin. Tom also missed the walk as he was resting after a tough week of moving house.

Sandria and Aileen who went shopping in Portobello instead along with Elspeth.

Tom Moves House After 83 Years

John and Sandria are Down for a couple of days to help Tom move house, but as Tom was resting this morning after a hectic day yesterday we had a lovely 4 mile walk this morning with Mike Tinker. While we were walking Gaye and Sandria were shopping at Latimers.

This afternoon we went down to his new house in Waverley Road to celebrate his move. He was ready for us with cakes and a bottle of Prosecco (non alcoholic). Tom has lived in Walter Street all his life and he will be 84 in December. This move has been quite dramatic for him, but he has been very organised and his planning has been perfect. He now has to find somewhere for almost 5000 books.

Good luck in your new house Tom

 

A Walk up Meggat Water

Gaye was planning to visit her friend Wilma at Bentpath this afternoon so I took advantage of the trip up the Esk valley to drop her off at Boonies and then travel a few miles up the Meggat valley in order to top up my daily miles walked. I parked up beside the river a couple of miles south of Glendinning and walked up this remote and beautiful valley.

Close to where I parked the car was this embankment next to the Meggat and I am sure there would have been Sand Martin nests there this summer.

A further away view of the banking

I was about an hour up this valley and in that time I saw no other vehicles or people

This is still sheep country and this is an old sheep stell. 

My car parked up beside the Meggat. It must be 4 or 5 years since I was last up this valley and I loved the remoteness of it. There were a pair of Buzzards flying about but too far away to photograph with my I phone camera.

Heading up the valley towards Megdale and then Glendinning further up the valley

The new bridge at Megdale

An old bridge at Megdale which is now too dangerous to cross

Megdale

Plenty of sheep up this valley. I hope it is never sold for forestry as it would ruin this valley.

I met these 6 big Rams or Tups as we call them in Scotland. They will be very busy in a few months time, but today they were enjoying a quiet life beside the river.

I saw a couple of Dippers at this spot but was not able to photograph them

A most enjoyable 1 mile walk up the valley and then back down again and I was back at Boonies for tea and cake exactly an hour after dropping Gaye off at Wilma's. One of the best hours I have spent walking in a long time. Just as I was leaving two cyclists appeared and gave me a big wave as they headed up the valley. I have a feeling they may have been heading for the Bothy at Greensykes which is about 4 miles up the valley from Glendinning. It was at Glendinning that the famous Scottish Engineer Thomas Telford was born in 1757 and there is a memorial to him there. 

 

Another Walk on the Borders Drovers Road

Six weeks ago Mike and I walked this Borders Drovers Road on a beautiful summers day and we were very impressed with it. Charlie was unavailable that day so we were determined to take him to Hawick to see it for himself. The best part is the mile long Drove road which has 2 drystone dykes flanking it. Between the drystone dykes there are a multitude of wild flowers and today it was a huge quantity of Berries and Sloes

It is a well sheltered road and a pleasure to walk along

This Elder tree was full of Elderberry fruit.

This beautiful Highland Cow was not a bit bothered by our presence

Another Elderberry Tree

The downhill section of the Drove Road

Another prominent fruit was Rosehips

This was a Hawthorn and Elder intwined together and very old

Rosehips and Sloes

More Rosehips. We had a lovely walk and came back to The Buccleuch Centre for our coffee and were served within a minute of walking in the door as we have the same order every Thursday. 

 

Walking Through a time Zone on Hadrians Wall

Today's Thursday walk with Mike and Charlie took us to Lanercost Priory where we started our 5 mile walk first of all along the river Irthing and then following the route of Hadrians Wall.

Lanercost Priory

The three intrepid walkers with an average age of 80. It took us two and a quarter hours to cover the 5 miles and we just had one short stop of about 10 minutes, although on the uphill sections we stopped to admire the view several times. 

We saw plenty of Crab Apple trees and this one was laden with apples

More Crab Apples

One of the nice wooden signposts for Hadrians Wall

A very old and unusual tree that has grown on a section of the wall. There are not many places at this part of the Hadrian wall walk that you can actually see the remains of the wall.

Plenty of Sloe Berries

A section of the path where stone flags have been put down to avoid erosion

A lovely farmhouse we passed at the half way point

Mike and Charlie

Many of the small streams leading in to the Irthing River were now almost dry

The same stream a little bit further along

One of the problems on these walks is the maintenance of the stiles and gates. This stile was in a bad way and we had great difficulty getting over it. We had a superb 5 mile walk and ended up having a nice Coffee back at The Buccleuch Centre as the Cafe at Lanercost Abbey was busy.