30 September 2014 – East Lothian Exploration

We were invited along to today’s cycle by Fiona from Lothian Cyclists, who wanted to scope out a few possible new paths with which to put together some new routes through the East Lothian countryside. Along with Susan and Alison, we all congregated at Fisherrow Harbour in Musselburgh at 10am on a sunny autumn morning.

To start with, we followed the shoreline east using the usual tracks, past Musselburgh until we got spat out back on the road at Prestonpans. We cycled through the ‘pans and past the now derelict Cockenzie power station before going left down towards Cockenzie harbour. After that, a useful combination of road and path took us along to Port Seton harbour, avoiding the main road.

Before the end of the path along the shore, we took a right turn, leading to the public loos: along with cafes, one of the most important features on any cyclist’s route map! From there, we left Port Seton / Seton Sands along the main road, looking out for a wee green sign on the right. This pointed the way, through a gate and along a footpath, to historic Seton Collegiate Church. The path was easily cyclable, and aside from going to the aforementioned church, it has been extended into a network of crisscrossing paths through the links. We followed a route which took us out onto the A198, immediately opposite a level crossing on the railway that runs parallel to the road.

As soon as we all gathered together next to the closed barrier, an Edinburgh-bound train came clattering past at high speed, after which the barriers opened almost instantly. Across on the other side, we found a quiet and peaceful minor road which led eastwards through the East Lothian countryside. It was an easy ride along this road for a few miles until we reached the Longniddy to Haddington cycle path. This path runs over the road we were on, across a bridge, following the route of an old railway. We found an access point to the path at the far side of the bridge, and joined it alongside some people who were picking sloes. Mmmm, sloe gin, yummy…!!!

I'm sure it says "you are here" somewhere...

I’m sure it says “you are here” somewhere…

From there, it was a familiar ride into Haddington, where we paused for a spot of map reading, at which point we realised it was nearly noon already. The aim was to get to Dunbar before turning back, and with no possible cafe stops between Haddington and there, we opted for some refreshments in the town centre first.

When we arived at Diggory’s cafe, the cake supplies were looking sadly depleted. I ordered one of the last two pieces of a chocolate cake with salted caramel filling, which was superb and gone all too quickly. After everyone was satisfied, we got back on the road and headed out of Haddington via cycle route 76. This takes the easy route to Dunbar, going past Hailes Castle, and as we approached the turnoff for the castle, Colette suggested that we could just go that way. However, even if we were feeling like taking it easy, that was not going to be possible, as the road was closed, leaving the climb up to Traprain Law as the only alternative.

The road running up along the north side of the law felt a bit easier than expected, possibly due to the westerly breeze pushing us up. The freewheel down the other side was fun too! We stopped at the next junction and the maps came out again, which was to be repeated at just about every other junction between there and Dunbar. There are so many intersecting roads in this part of the world that it is very easy to get lost.

Which way Dunbar???

Which way Dunbar???

The road signs pointing to Dunbar were being largely ignored, as the route was a convuluted, scenic one, taking the less busy roads, many of which I’d never been along before. Arriving at the picturesque crossroads at Pitcox, we found our intended exit to be blocked by roadworks. While some of us looked at the signpost and wondered about diversions, Fiona went over to the workmen and secured us safe passage through the rubble, with the guys pausing their noisy pneumatic machines as we went past.

What a lovely spott

What a lovely spott

From there, it was onwards and to some extent upwards, to Little Spott, where a newly finished steading conversion was perfectly located for a wonderful panoramic view of the Firth of Forth. We then passed a ford where all of us opted to walk our bikes across the bridge rather than ride through. After all, fords can be slippy (been there, fallen off, got the scab).

As we continued through Spott towards Dunbar, somehow we became the Famous Five. The allocation of characters from the books to ourselves was the cause of some squabbling. I was told I was Julian. That was fine by me, as I have very little recollection of the books, apart from having read one or two of them about 40 years ago. Or was that the Secret Seven…??? I was very impressed that Colette, Susan and Fiona could remember the titles of the books.

That kept us busy till we reached the outskirts of Dunbar, where we crossed the A1 and went past the ASDA superstore towards the town centre. Our aim here was to find a good place for lunch, ideally for a group of a dozen or more cyclists. There were a couple of cafes on the High Street, but they were very busy, and it would be hard to believe they would be willing to reserve three or more tables for a group that was going to arrive at an unpredictable time. Our next idea was to head for the Garden Path Cafe, which we had used on a previous run. We had already ruled that out for the future, as it had taken over an hour to get everyone served the last time. With just five of us today, the service should surely be a bit quicker. As it turned out, we would have had to wait till Friday to be served, as they are shut Tuesday – Thursday!

Dunbar harbour

Dunbar harbour

So the last resort was to buy some food and take it down to the harbour to eat. Colette, Susan and I bought chips from the chippie and sat down on a bench to eat them, relaxing in the warm sun by the harbour wall. Alison and Fiona didn’t fancy chips, so they went off by themselves and we met up again afterwards. Another map session duly followed, after which we headed west again, out of Dunbar and along the pavement of the old A1.

We were now cycling directly into the wind but that didn’t faze Colette, who led the way at a good pace. That was just as well, as this bit of road is best got over with as quickly as possible. We then came into East Linton where I almost took us the wrong way, but for some more map reading by the side of the road. Back on the right track, we were now heading upwards out of East Linton, followed by a lovely long downhill stretch, after which we turned left along the road for East Fortune.

By this time, some of us were beginning to flag a bit, and since we hadn’t had a proper cafe stop in Dunbar, we popped into the Merryhatton garden centre for tea and cake at their cafe. The cafe was surprisingly spacious, with plenty of room for the average Lothian Cyclists crew. My Malteaser slice was full of lovely sugary calories to get me fueled up for the rest of the journey. We also got more hot water for our tea pot at no extra charge – always a plus point for any cyclist’s cafe. Cyclists are thirsty people!

Leaving our last pit stop, we headed north towards Kingston, but took a diversion to the left just before the village, which allowed us to bypass it (and some climbing) and get ourselves onto the road heading west towards Aberlady. It was rush hour as we approached Aberlady, and leaving the quiet country roads behind, we had to mix it with cars again, some of which weren’t being very patient.

We cycled along the coast road to Port Seton and retraced our steps (or should that be tyre tracks?) back towards Musselburgh. It was now late afternoon, and the sun was streaming out from behind a cloud just above Arthur’s Seat, highlighting the Edinburgh skyline. It was high tide and the sea was virtually still. The wind had now died down to a whisper. What a lovely way to complete the final few miles of our journey.

My Strava put it at just over 60 miles, but Colette’s was just under. So she made a couple of circuits of the car park to make it up to 60! It was a long day out, but thoroughly enjoyable.

 

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One Response to 30 September 2014 – East Lothian Exploration

  1. Susan says:

    The following is a little homage to the Famous Five books which, as Alan has mentioned, we discovered were a part of all our childhoods – there are 14 references to Famous Five titles, see if you can spot them.

    Our Fiona had planned a cycle run recce
    make sure that you’ve had a really good brekky
    it’s longer than usual, we might go quite far
    if it goes really well, we’ll end up in Dunbar.

    The not so famous five set off for the day
    with maps assorted to make sure of the way
    adventuring again, we’ll go down to the sea
    have plenty of fun, back in time for tea.

    That’s how it worked in Enid Blyton’s books
    add a mystery to solve and a few rubbish crooks
    the five were invincible, always on a secret trail
    and never in a squillion years have they been known to fail.

    No pressure then on this quintet, but we can’t run away together
    to Billycock Hill, Finniston Farm or camp on Kirrin Island forever
    – it’s East Lothian for us, Bass Rock and Traprain Law
    and when we get home we’ll be bike saddle raw!

    They had mystery moors and smuggler’s tops
    umpteen treasure islands and demon’s rocks
    we get low flying jets, tractors with wide loads
    confusing signposts and troublesome fords.

    But nevertheless, when all’s said and done
    both sets of five had lashings of fun
    last day of September and the sun it did shine
    and this five certainly had a wonderful time!

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