…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)
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
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