20 April 2019 – we’ve just arrived in Edinburgh, and we’re taking a walk beside the Water of Leith to Dean Village, early on a fine spring evening
20 April 2020 – coincidentally, and nearly 300 miles further south, we’re walking down the lane that leads to Dean Farm. It’s another fine spring day – not a cloud in the sky.
Monday 18 November: there’s a clear blue sky, but it’s an icy cold morning at Newhaven harbour. The walk, this time up the old railway track to Scotland Street, warms us up, and by the time we’re atop Calton Hill, we’re positively glowing. The views, especially to Fife and the Forth, are extensive, but it’s busy. “Let’s go and spend an hour or so in the museum”. Perhaps we’ll get a bite to eat there too? We’re distracted by the wonders on display, and soon it’s time to make our way back to Waverley for the train journey home.
…from the bitterly-cold Forth shore to the tourist hordes in the old town.
Sunday 17 November: we walked from Newhaven to Leith, following the water’s edge where we could, then headed inland to the top of Leith Walk. We’re in Edinburgh now: I shudder to think what the Royal Mile must be like in high summer. We’ll try to find a quieter route to Waverley, where we’ve an appointment with the 13.11 train to the Borders Railway.
Busy days!
Saturday 16 November: off to Edinburgh, on the train from Crewe.
Sunday: an ice-cold start on the Forth’s shore at Newhaven and Leith, then up Leith Walk (on foot, of course) for a brief spot of tourism in Edinburgh’s old town.
Monday: another frosty morning. This time we’ll use the old railway track to Scotland Street, and we’ll visit Calton Hill and the National Museum of Scotland. A full day wouldn’t have done justice to the museum, and we’ve only got a couple of hours before our train for home.
Tuesday: a day off, and an hour or so of fresh air down by the Severn, where the bridge is looking good in the late-afternoon light.
Wednesday: away at the crack of dawn for a rail exploration of parts of Lancashire, which doesn’t quite go according to plan. We miss a train in unexpected fashion in Wigan, before finding ourselves (briefly) in Blackburn and Clitheroe.
(further photographic exploration to follow)
Thursday 14 March: We’re in Edinburgh for a couple of days, and this afternoon we’re taking a leisurely stroll around the Royal Botanic Gardens. Not too leisurely – there’s a biting wind. Despite the weather and the season, there’s plenty of colour – rhododendron and azalea are in flower, there are plenty of other spring flowers, and then there are the Tibetan prayer flags… There’s a good view of the Edinburgh skyline too, just a short way to our south.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
I’m keeping out of the way for half-an-hour, a little before 5pm when (for a few minutes) there’s just a little colour in the sky. There isn’t really enough light for hand-held photography, but if I stand very still and hold my breath…
Tuesday 26 December – Boxing Day: We’re walking from Edinburgh’s Stockbridge to the shores of the Forth at Newhaven, whose residents, I imagine, think of their south coast namesake as “the other”…. Much of the way is along well-surfaced footpaths on the trackbeds of former railways – there was quite a maze of lines between Edinburgh and Leith by the time the NBR and the Caley had finished. The buildings of the former Newhaven station, penultimate stop on the Caledonian line from Princes Street to Leith North (closed in 1962), were a pleasant surprise.
It’s a cold but clear afternoon – the low sun is bringing out the colours at the little harbour; in the distance are the shores of Fife and, away to the west, the Forth bridges. There are three of them now…
View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=325450&Y=675896&A=Y&Z=120
Sunday 24 December: it’s Christmas Eve, and there’s just time for a short leg stretch, before the early sunset gets the better of us. We’re in Edinburgh, and we’re taking a walk beside the Water of Leith, up through Dean Village. A detour takes through Dean cemetery, where we chance upon a familiar name – Sir Thomas Bouch, the designer of the Tay Bridge, the one which collapsed in a gale
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.
McGonagall’s doggerel is worth reading, if only as an example of “how not to do poetry” (and I’m no expert! Inevitably, it rhymes (after a fashion), but McGonagall knew not scansion…)
The Tay Bridge Disaster: William McGonagall
More-or-less… Visit “First Day of the Waverley Route” for more on the first public train from Edinburgh, on the line that closed more than 46 years ago (and see “Last Day of the Waverley Route” for an account of the last time – and what I really thought would be the last time – I travelled on the line).
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