Whale Of A Time Up The Law.

The good lady wife decided to have a change of scenery for her weeks grocery shopping & planned on a trip to another near by  local town, North Berwick so I took the opportunity to get the bike rack & bike onto the car & go with her so that I could cycle home, following sections of the John Muir Way on a sunny Spring day collecting a few geocaches en-route.

So getting dropped off in the car park of the North Berwick Law & a quick read of the notice board I set off on my way, first stop the summit of the Law.

Cycling a fair bit up but eventually had to get off & launch the bike over the shoulders to finish the climb to the top.
The Law stands 613ft (187m) above sea level.

Reaching the summit & rewarded with some of the most amazing 360 degree views.
The famous whale's jawbone collapsed in 2005 after rotting away & was removed by helicopter. A jawbone has stood there since 1709, the last one having been there since 1933.
In June 2008 a fibreglass replica whale jawbone the same size as the one removed in 2005 was airlifted into place to give North Berwick Law back it's famous landmark.
The funding for the replica was donated by an anonymous friend of North Berwick.

An old picture of the 1933 jawbone.

One of the best views up here on the summit has to be the mighty Bass Rock, again a volcanic plug, standing 351ft (107m) high & is home to one of the biggest gannet colonies.

The summit of the Law has remnants of an Iron Age hill fort & the ruins of later military buildings that were once used by lookouts in both the Napoleonic wars & in WWII.

Another Trig point bagged while up here too, along with the toposcope pillar informing you what the sights, landmarks & distances are here from the summit.

Views looking north, south, east & west.
It was nice up here today & I had the place to myself.

Zooming in for a picture of Dunbar & it's surroundings where I'm heading for, nice as it was up here it was time to hit the trail, but first a nice fast descent back down off the Law.

Down at the bottom I spotted the resident Exmoor ponies doing their job grazing on the coarse grasses.

Onwards along the JMW.

A sure sign that the good weather isn't too far away now & nature is coming back to life after winter, albeit a very mild one for us here on the south east coast of Scotland. Snowdrops carpet the woodland floor & primroses clumped here & there brighten the skeletal woodlands until the first buds of springtime pop open.

A couple of geocaches to search for in this location at Craigmoor wood.

And here's one hidden in this old tree stump. Logbook signed, placed back into it's hide-e-hole & onto the next.

I love these old signposts, they add real character to the countryside of days gone by.

Been a while since I've cycled this trail & it was a really nice day to be out'n'about with a nice fresh cool breeze & sunny weather.
What could be better than that ?

Seen along the JMW route is Newbyth mansion house designed in 1817 by Archibald Elliot in Georgian Gothic style with towers & castellated  battlements.

Another great vantage point before rolling over the hill down into East Linton with views looking back behind me to North Berwick Law & Traprain Law in front with the Lammermuir hills behind filling the horizon.

A stop at the Linn Rocks in East Linton for something to eat while being hypnotised watching the water crashing over the rocks. 
The narrow channel in the Linn Rocks was cut through around 1830 to help salmon reach their spawning grounds in the upper reaches of the river Tyne.

Looking at & then up onto the Old Tyne Bridge then looking back down to the river battling over the Linn Rocks, a great place to be watching the river Tyne after storms when it's in spate.

And looking over from the other side to the railway bridge with it's Victorian style.

The run down Phantassie farm on the outskirts of East Linton, I wonder how long it will be before the buildings are turned into houses ?

Phantassie doocot built in the 16th century for housing pigeons, which in turn kept people fed in meat, the pigeon droppings were used in leather tanning & also as a fertiliser for fields. The walls are 4ft (1.2m) thick & it has a total of 544 nest boxes inside.

Back onto the Tyne footpath which is a nice track to cycle along & there's always something to catch the eye.

Along here by the river are a few geocaches which I have already logged previously, but I wanted to show you the unusual containers that they can be hiding in, not a very common sight along the Tyne are crocodiles, but a great distraction for the kids when out for family walks hunting for geocaches more so when they find fun cache containers like this.

I knew I could smell a fox somewhere !

Many a car been washed down the river when the water is high !

Along the pathway & turning away from the river heading inland up a field track which is normally strewn with thorns from the hawthorn hedge separating the road from the field.

Along the stony Ware Road.

To the Tyne estuary where a Shellduck & Oyster Catcher were feeding as the tide recedes. This is a bird watching mecca for wading birds.

A pedal along with the shore on my left & the rusty autumnal bracken on my right as I neared John Muir Country Park. 

Going...

...going...

...gone ! 
The effects of coastal erosion.

Passing through the pine filled woods of the John Muir park which was also very quiet today even in this glorious sunshine, very strange as there's normally lots of dog walkers going about.

Many a locals favourite place here at the Bridge to nowhere, it's one of my top places for sure, always a beautiful place whether the tide is in or out, summer or winter. 
You can see far in the distance the Bass Rock & North Berwick Law where I was earlier on in the day.

A quick fly by past the castle & harbour in Dunbar.

Cycling out of town homewards I saw this the other day in my car but was going to fast to register what it was, so not going so fast today on my bike I stopped for a nose.
A tattie (potato) honestly box.
What a great idea it is too as long as it doesn't get abused by dishonest people stealing them !

Whitesands today was looking more like Corsica rather than Scotland.

I was chuffed to bits being able to use this route again now that all the parasitic gypsy's have now been moved on, but they've left their mark with the damage they did !

 Nearing Innerwick I spotted this lorry in a field, we saw this on our way to North Berwick in the morning but we thought it was just a breakdown & we didn't see the lorry in the field, a strange one as it was loaded & not windy enough to blow it off the road ?

Last wee hill before home to the sound of a boiling kettle & to have a rummage in the kitchen to see what goodies the Mrs bought when she was shopping mmmm !

Thanks for the visit :-)