East Lothian - Tranent wagonway

Living on the Portobello side of Edinburgh, I’ve got rich pickings for cycling in lockdown just over the county line in East Lothian. One of the routes, which I also run and walk in normal times, is a wee tour based around Tranent. On the way round, there are some fascinating snippets of Scottish history and great views from the higher parts of the ride. I’d probably say it is my favourite local lockdown loop.

On the bike, my trip starts by cycling south out of Portobello and joining the River Esk walkway to Whitecraig. But if I’m walking or running in normal times, I take the bus to Wallyford. It puts me out at the last stop right beside the Miners’ Stone. The carved stone commemorates the 38 miners who died working in the town’s coal mines and depicts mining scenes. Plaques nearby list the names of the deceased miners with dates ranging from 1857 to 1929. The mine here operated from 1840 until 1972, eventually closing due to the adverse economics of the day.

Whether on foot or on the bike, it’s now a stiff climb up the steep, northerly slope of Falside Hill to the charming Fa’side Castle.  Sitting right on top of the hill, it has a commanding view over the Firth of Forth. The castle dates from 1189 when the monks of Newbattle Abbey to the south of Edinburgh granted land to the 1st Earl of Winchester. However, the earliest part of the present building was constructed by the Fawsydes in the 15th-century. The castle was burned by the English before the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, which was fought nearby on 10 September 1547 and Mary, Queen of Scots stayed at Fa'side Castle the night before the Battle of Carberry Hill on 15 June 1567. It is said she left behind a chest containing her finest clothes - a black dress sewn with grains of jet, a crimson coat and cloak, and her gold and silver embroidered hat. I wonder if that chest was ever found when the castle was being extensively renovated to its present state in the 1980s.

Moving on from the castle, I’m now cycling on the skinny road that travels east along the ridge of Falside Hill. I love this high road because once the climb is done, it’s a wonderful flat ride along the top, usually with a tailwind. The view really opens up here. To the north, I can look over the Firth of Forth to Fife and its Lomond Hills; to the west I look back to Edinburgh with its own hills, the Pentlands; and on my right the Lammermuirs form the undulating, southern border of East Lothian. The top of Falside Hill is only 144m high but with nothing else crowding in, there’s a wonderful sense of space up here.

All too quickly, the high road drops down to Tranent. I like to detour into Tranent’s centre to visit another poignant memorial. The sculpture of Jackie Crookston commemorates those who died in the Massacre of Tranent on 29 August 1797. The day before the massacre, a proclamation had been drawn up by local people to object to the conscription of Scots into the British Militia. On 29 August, it was handed to Major Wight, the commanding officer of the recruitment squad. It was ignored initially until a contingent from the local colliery communities, led by Crookston, confronted the troops. Their response was brutal and several of the protesters, including Crookston, were shot dead.  Her larger than life sculpture looks over the main street and depicts her rallying fellow protesters.

I cycle back on myself a little now to pick up the next section of my ride which is hidden behind the houses and passes under the main road to descend through the woods. This is the disused route of the Tranent Wagonway. 

Running from Tranent to Cockenzie, the wagonway was opened in 1722. It was the first of its kind in Scotland and operated with wooden tracks and horse-drawn wagons. At two and a half miles long, it connected coal pits at Tranent with the harbour at Cockenzie on the East Lothian coast. Before the eighteenth century, salt production on the shore of the Firth of Forth was a significant activity and salt water was evaporated in salt pans. This required a lot of coal so when local deposits were used up, the wagonway was built to bring in coal from further away.

The Battle of Prestonpans in 1745 was fought across the wagonway and my cycling route today passes right beside the battlefield viewpoint and interpretation signs. Placed on top of a manmade mound, a bit like an Egyptian pyramid, it’s a stiff push to get up there with the bike. The battle was fought during the Jacobite uprising of 1745 when the forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie were advancing southwards, and the opposing forces of Sir John Cope brought them to battle. On 20 September 1745 Cope's troops and artillery ranged along the wagonway and used its embankment as cover. Nonetheless they were defeated by Bonnie Prince Charlie and sent packing. 

Further along, the wagonway is now a gravel track and passes right over the battlefield. There are two stone memorials, one for each army.

The wagonway is descending now to the harbour at Cockenzie, although the latter part of the line has been lost to the village’s expansion. I pop out of the woods and onto the road. Cockenzie was a centre for salt production itself but the harbour also provided a means to export the local coal by boat. The old harbour walls are made of large stones expertly placed together that always make me think of the big stone walls of Machu Picchu in Peru. With its colourful boats, the harbour still has some old world charm. It’s also a pleasant place to sit for a while, looking out over the sea.

Cockenzie is the last stop on my ride before I cycle home using a mixture of the coast road and gravel tracks.  By the time I arrive back at my front door, I’ve only cycled an 18-mile loop but I’m always amazed at how much I’ve seen along the way.

Fact File

Start/finish: Portobello, Edinburgh

Public transport if walking the route: Lothian Buses No. 44 drops you at the Miners' Stone in Wallyford. For the start, walk back on yourself to the first right, walk up past the industrial estate and continue on the path as it passes over the A1 and climbs the hill to pop out right beside the castle. Buses 26 or 124 return from Cockenzie to Portobello and Edinburgh.

My cycle route: Cycling south out of Portobello, I pick NCN1 at Brunstane and follow it to Whitecraig. Continue to the roundabout at the far end of the village and go straight over. Next right is the tough climb up Falside Hill. Follow this road towards Tranent and take the first road to the right into Tranent. Where this road junctions with another, turn right and the start of the wagonway is behind the Brig Inn. For the Massacre memorial, pass in front of the Brig Inn and where this road junctions with the main street in Tranent, turn right. Statue is on the right hand side of the street. Back to the wagonway, follow it downhill to the battlefield viewpoint which is clearly signed. Drop down the other side of the viewpoint, cross the pedestrian bridge over the railway line and turn right up this road. In a couple of hundred metres, the wagonway is signed to the left. Follow this gravel track and where it ends, join the road into Cockenzie. Where it junctions with the main coast road, go straight over for the harbour. 

Info: Fa'side Castle is currently for sale for £1.7m.

Edinburgh - Continental breakfast

I’ve cycled on the continent a few times now. I absolutely love it, whether it’s pootling through the pleasant countryside of France or whizzing along the excellent bike paths of Holland and Germany. I both started and finished my two-year, world bicycle journey on the continent and a couple of years later cycled for six months across northern Europe. There have been many highlights on these continental rides. One of them was a cycle tour within a cycle tour in the French Alps, as I was on the homeward leg of my world cycle. Over ten days or so, my friend Bart and I cycled fourteen of the French cols made famous by the Tour de France. One of the cols really stood out for me. It wasn’t the most beautiful which would be Galibier, or the highest which was Col de la Bonette, but it was a wonderful moment as we pulled up onto the top of this special col. Something about it captured the essence of my whole round-the world trip with a sense of triumph, joy and incredible freedom. It was Col de la Croix de Fer.

What a contrast life is just now with our freedom taken away by a global pandemic. Despite the lockdown, I wanted to do something that would at least give me a sense of joy. So I hatched a plan. My home city, Edinburgh, has an iconic hill as its centrepiece called Arthur’s Seat. This extinct volcano rises above Holyrood Palace and, despite its small size, affords great views in every direction. It’s guarded on the west by the tall, fortress-like cliffs of Salisbury Crags but on the east a steep road climbs up then contours round the hill’s upper flanks. The height gain is 90m. 

My plan was to cycle enough circuits of this high road on Arthur’s Seat to mimic the climb up Col de la Croix de Fer. That would be 17 circuits as although the col is 2067m in total height, the actual climb doesn’t start at sea level. I would cycle a few circuits before breakfast each day of the five-day working week and be ready to start work around my usual time. Once the plan was made, a perfect week to do it came around quickly with light winds and the last of the cold, crisp weather giving beautiful mornings in the city.

Every day my alarm went off at 4.30am. Every day I asked myself why this seemed like a good idea and every day I eventually got up out of bed. I pulled on my cycling clothes that I’d laid out the night before, grabbed thick gloves for the freezing morning temperatures and wheeled the bike outside the front door into the half dark that was neither night nor day. I cycled off into a deserted city and enjoyed the ride in the cool air along traffic-free roads. It’s a gentle rise from my house at the seaside to the bottom of Arthur’s Seat, so I was warmed up before the stiff climb.

Already the birds were singing their dawn chorus as I cycled the first section of the climb up through the trees which formed a green tunnel ahead of me. The trees gave way higher up to open ground and gorse scrub. By the time I reached the top of the climb for the first time each day, the shimmering, red globe of the sun was rising above the horizon between the Bass Rock and North Berwick Law. It was a stunning sight and the golden, dawn colours were reflected in the waters of the high loch, Dunsapie.

As my climb levelled out and I contoured round the hill my view changed. Far below me now was Duddingston Loch. On the coldest mornings, mist hung above the surface so that it looked like a primordial swamp and only the top of a few rooftops poked above it. Further away the Pentland Hills caught the morning sun and as I cycled further around the hill, the city rooftops were laid out below me. There was then a fast descent down to Holyrood Palace to start the climb again.

I cycled enough circuits Monday to Thursday to leave me just one circuit to do on the Friday. I cycled slowly for the last one and enjoyed the moment. I also made enough time when I finished to cycle a lap of honour around the Meadows, a large park a few minutes cycle away from Arthur’s Seat. Here I enjoyed the blossom trees and celebrated my climb up Col de la Croix de Fer.

The plan had started as something for a bit of fun but it was profoundly beautiful up there early morning, watching the sun rise in the quiet stillness of the breaking day. I would never have done it but for the lockdown and it’s an experience that will stay with me forever. If Col de la Croix de Fer symbolised the joy of my world cycle trip, then the dawn cycles around Arthur’s Seat will be my abiding memory of the pandemic.