Friday 25 April 2014

Oh What A Murky Morning

Today I had to take my car to the garage down in Dunbar, so it was the bike into the car boot & off to the garage to drop it off to be repaired then a nice cycle along the coast back home.




After dropping off the car it was down onto the town's east esplanade heading for the golf coarse.

Entering the grounds of the Dunbar Golf Coarse.

Washed up lobster creel, a mute swan & shelducks.
A lot of damage was done due to during the storms we had here earlier in the year, the green keepers have repaired & shored up the worst affected parts of the coarse with stone filled gabions, but there is still as you can see a lot of work still to be done.

Erosive forces at work.


A sad sight to come across this dead grey seal which has been washed ashore, it's amazing how big these beasts are & the picture of my foot beside it doesn't do it's size justice !
 Not sure what the big hole is on it's lower abdomen, but when I got home I tried to contact the local Ranger service to inform them but unfortunately no one answered so I had to leave an answer phone message, so my wife contacted one of her friends who is a marine biologist for the Scottish government.
Sea Buckthorn, I love this plant it has an unusual green hue to it's leaves & has amazing bright orange berries in the autumn time & I once saw a programme where the berries were used to make champagne.
Only half of the cement works visible today, the other half enveloped in the Scotch mist.
 The incoming tide covering the hollows that were once the root bundles of trees from the carboniferous period around 340 million years ago.


This section between White Sands & Barns Ness is a geological hotspot with so much to see if you know what to look for.
Even on a dreich day like today the gorse bushes always have a bright sunny smile.


Innerwick my base camp is up there in the hills somewhere I'll just follow the smell of bacon rolls & coffee to guide me home !

Thanks for looking & cheers for now.

Thursday 24 April 2014

A River, A Castle & The Law.

Making the most of this fine calm weather, it was off to the nearby town of Haddington to ride alongside the beautiful river Tyne to the Hailes Castle which resides on the river bank then passing by Traprain Law & the Loth Stane before heading home along the scenic edge of the Lammermuir Hills.

I think this time of the year is by far my favourite time to ride along the Tyne as the smells from the freshly growing vegetation are just so pungent & strong as they start their growth cycle all over again for another season, also the bird song along the riverside route as they are pairing up & nesting.

Starting off from Riverside Drive in Haddington & soon I come to this weir which is always a good place to stop for a photo.

Amisfield Park
Located about a 1/2 mile east of Haddington. Amisfield Park is today the home of Haddington Golf Club. It was once the estate of the infamous gambler Colonel Francis Charteris & is the site of Amisfield House regarded as the finest example of Orthodox Palladianism in Scotland, which was built c.1755 it was extended in 1785, but was demolished in 1928. Originally part of the lands of a 12 century Cistercian Nunnery, the estate had been used for the Tyneside Games held annually for 20 years from 1833. Haddington Golf Club was established in 1865. The park was occupied by the military during the Jacobite Rebellion (1745) and the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815). The house was used as officers quarters during WWI & the estate once again as a camp during WWII.


I often wonder why the Abbey Bridge has 3 arches ? Could be that it keeps the road up high & of the flood plain or maybe even the river at one time was bigger ? Or more of a possibility that at one time the river was diverted over towards the old Abbey Mill but I have no idea to be honest !

A Grey Heron stalking in the shallows of the river & a little Chaffinch perched in the branches.


Views along the riverside pathway & while searching for a geocache I came across this Blackbird nest with young chicks in it so I back tracked my way out & will get this geocache another day.



Great views along the Tyne today with  the water being so calm giving great reflections for taking pictures.
What a cool find this was, I need to start collecting these old bricks that I come across on my travels, this one reads
 M. B. Sherriff Dunbar
possibly from the old Seafield Brick & Tile Works, Edinburgh Road, Dunbar
Dates: c.1800 - c.1890
www.brickspotting.com



Another weir with water being diverted to Sandy's Mill Just a couple of hundred yard further downstream.







The stunning Sandy's Mill an old mid to late 18th century 3 storey meal mill, now converted into a house & still has the mill shafts etc inside it.


The wild garlic almost in flower & a geocache I collected along the route, a good example of how well some of them can be hidden even by using GPS co-ords they can still be difficult to find, this one however came with a great hint which was ' It's not just lollypops that are on sticks'.

Traprain Law.






Rounding the corner & the ruin of the mighty Hailes Castle comes into view where my journey along the river Tyne ends as I head inland.















Hailes Castle was originally founded as a fortified tower house by Hugo de Gourlay before 1300, making it one of the oldest constructions of it's kind in Scotland.
The little stone boxes in the above pictures are pigeon nest boxes & would of been a good source of meat for the castle residents.


Heading up a farm track towards Traprain Law to collect another geocache, which I found but it has been swallowed up by the trunk of a bush that it was hidden in so I was unable to sign the log book, but photographic evidence is enough to claim the find.
Across the road & onto another pathway to the south side of the Law to visit a standing stone, this pathway at the moment is pretty much un-ridable by bike as horse riders have trekked over it when the ground has been very soft making big holes, but hey-ho that's the countryside for you people could say the same about bike tyre ruts !

Sky looking a bit moody in the direction I'm heading.

The Exmoor ponies doing their stuff on the Law keeping the grass down so other plants & flowers etc can flourish, more ponies have been supplied to near by North Berwick Law for the same purpose.

The 'Loth Stane' is a four sided monolith 2.4 metres high & is located along a hedgerow around 300 metres to the south west of Traprain Law. This is not the original position of the stane as it was moved from within a field to the field's margins as not to hamper agriculture. The area was excavated at the time of removal but nothing was found, although there are records that stone coffins & a cist were discovered nearby.


The things you see when your out on the bike ! Spotted this escapee goat having a great time munching on the oil seed rape, it's face reminds me of someone but I can't think who :-/



Some old finger posts along the way.

Afternoon haze with both the Bass Rock & North Berwick Law shrouded.


A we blast through the wild garlic covered woodland floor on the way home, my last wee bit of, off road before hitting the tarmac for the rest of the way the belly's starting to rumble, but a couple of big hills to do first...

...Spott Loan known locally as 'Starvation brae' & by the time you get to the top you are starving & there's truth in that, I always make it my mission not to stop for a breather until I reach this gorse bush about three quarters of the way up ! 
Anyway that's that for today hope you liked the post, 
Bye for now.