Closer to home - A sprinkle of winter

My favourite running route at Ormiston and Pencaitland has been dusted with a sprinkling of winter.

Close to home - Autumn storms

With three weather warnings during my autumn holidays, I didn't travel very far afield but made the most of the rich colours closer to home. With the colder weather as well, I start to increase my running mileage and getting out running is a great way to enjoy autumn.

One of my favourite running routes is a loop through the woods and fields from Ormiston to Pencaitland then back via the Winton Estate. The trails here are always quiet and often muddy in winter which is perfect because I do think the muddier you are when you get home, the more you have enjoyed your run! 

Another favourite run close to home is from Aberlady Bay along the coast to Gullane then back via the John Muir Way and the Postman's Path through Luffness Estate. The coast path is quite rugged and exposed here but in autumn there are huge numbers of geese and waders to distract your attention. This run was early morning as the sun was rising over a frosty landscape.

Further afield, I love to run to family visits in Newport from the train station at Dundee as the route goes over the Tay Bridge which has expansive views up and down the river, then along the Newport Nature Trail. There's a particular point on the trail when the trees and low sunlight conspire to create a little bit of magic.

There were plenty of nice walks too in my autumn holidays including a wander round the Gosford Policies, always stunning at this time of year. Gosford House is the seat of the Earls of Wemyss and March, and dates from 1800. But it's the grounds that steal the show with pretty ponds and woodland.

A wander up at Dunkeld is also beautiful at this time of year with the surrounding woods creating a rich backdrop of colour. In late autumn it's the beech trees that steal the show here. Or maybe it's the red squirrel at the Loch of the Lowes visitor centre.

Autumn is giving way now to winter, my favourite season. While there will no doubt be more storms, let's hope there's plenty of running and nice walks too.

Fife - Late summer Lomonds

We had two wildly contrasting days for this late summer overnighter in the Lomond Hills. The first day provided an endlessly changing weatherscape as a sunny morning gave way to a wet afternoon and evening. The second day was as hot as high summer. 

Butterflies and wildflowers had abounded for the walk in from the train at Markinch. But by the time we were on the flanks of East Lomond, we watched wave after wave of dense, dark clouds move through the Forth Estuary in the distance. They cast heavy downpours over Edinburgh which appeared then disappeared in the gloom. The showers eventually caught us too in sudden, short, sharp bursts. We soon decided it was quicker to pull the bothy bag over us than wrestle in and out of waterproofs each time.

We skipped the top of the hill and instead walked the track that contours round its south side. I like this route. It's very pleasant to walk and it feels ancient and atmospheric. It leads to the old limekilns, a beautiful spot, where today the sun briefly popped out.

We walked westwards and pitched the tents in a place that was hunkered down near Harperleas instead of the planned pitch on the exposed ridge of the Bishop. The tents were battered by wind and rain through the night so it was a wise change of plan. But the next day was beautiful with wall to wall sunshine that brought out the best of the purple heather.

After packing up the camp spot, we climbed up to an intriguing rock feature called the Devil's Burdens. It's a band of sandstone and volcanic rock that has weathered over time into strange shapes. It was a wonderful place to scramble around and to watch the wheatears flitting from rock to rock. A last sight of them before they fly back to Africa for the winter. 

We picked our way back down through dense, purple heather and wandered through Glen Vale. The rock feature here known as John Knox's Pulpit presides over the glen. It's an outcrop of grey sandstone and its hidden valley is said to have hosted secret meetings of Covenanters in the 17th century. The valley was lush with colourful heather and rampant bracken.

Our onward route took us across fields and farm tracks to the shores of Loch Leven which was quiet and sleepy in late summer ahead of the noisy, busy arrival of thousands of geese in autumn.

From here the lochside trail took us into Kinross to catch a bus home.

Fact File

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Start: Markinch train station

Finish: Kinross

My route: From the train station in Markinch followed the Fife Pilgrim Way signs west through Balbirnie Park then following the residential streets through Glenrothes to the Pitcairn Centre. From here, a lovely path climbs up to East Lomond. On this occasion took the track that contours round the south of the side of the hill to the old limekilns then joined the main track to the hill road at Craigmead. Turned left on the road then took the first track to the right, following it to Harperleas Reservoir, crossing along the dam and then walking along the forest track on its south shore. This path continues through to Glen Vale, passing below the Devil's Burdens. Further down Glen Vale a path to Glenlomond is signed though it's largely following field margins until a better, sandy farm track is reach. Took this track and turned left where it met a minor road then right at the busier road. A Loch Leven's Larder a path connects to the Loch Leven Heritage Trail which can be followed into Kinross. 

Monadhliath Mountains - A night on the eagle's perch

It's not often in Scotland that you get lucky with a good, high level camp because so often the tops of the hills are scoured by wind or drenched in mist. But this time, my friend and I did get lucky. A perfect, flat shelf of close-cropped turf and mosses sat at 700m on the ridge to Creag Dubh above Kingussie. The uninterrupted view swept south over the Cairngorms and only a gentle breeze rustled the nylon of the pitched tents. A beautiful, early summer evening made for a delightful walk from our tents across the top of the hill to the summit. Mountain hares abounded and the warm air was filled with the thin call of golden plovers.

We'd walked in that morning from the train at Newtonmore. Our walk took us across sheep pasture before following a lovely wooded stream-bed up the hillside and then striking out across the grassy hills. With the evening filled by bagging the peak then making supper, it wasn't until the next morning that I noticed all the jawbones.

A clagged-in morning with no views and an unhurried day ahead, made for a relaxed wander around the camp spot, examining the micro landscape close at hand. At first I just saw one but as soon as my eyes were trained in, I kept seeing more and more. Lots of little jawbones. Given the abundance of mountain hares that we had seen on our walk the previous evening, I guessed the jawbones must belong to them and if something had eaten them here, I guessed that something was a golden eagle. But these were old bones and the eagle's perch was long since abandoned.

Once we were packed up, we walked out a different way, descending eventually into Kingussie. The mist cleared lower down and warm sunshine broke through. The ancient birch woods of Creag Bheag provided welcome shade but wherever the path crossed a clearing, blue damselflies flitted around in the sun. Soon the tops cleared as well and we could look back up to where we'd spent a night on the eagle's perch.

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Start:Newtonmore
Finish: Kingussie
Public transport: Glasgow/Edinburgh to Inverness train
My route: From the main street in Newtonmore, took Strone Road then the track that heads north alongside the Allt na Beinne. Climbed the slopes of Beinn Buidhe then onto Creag Dubh via Carn Coire na h-Inghinn. Next day we followed the Allt Mor down to join the path along the shore of Loch Gynack then followed one of the woodland paths down into Kingussie.

Galloway - Backpacking a section of the Southern Upland Way

This was my first ever trip walking in Galloway in the southwestern corner of Scotland. I'd cycled there a number of times as it's great for that with lots of quiet country roads but somehow it's taken me this long to pull out the bus and train timetables to see what's possible on foot. Also, having just walked a section of the Southern Upland Way a couple of blogs ago in the Lammermuirs, I became intrigued to discover more of the route. Therefore, four trains and a rural bus took me to Glen Trool Village and after several days on foot, I popped out in Sanquhar to pick up a train home. I hadn't really known what to expect of this section of the route but I absolutely loved it. From the map it looks like the Southern Upland Way passes through a lot of commercial forestry as it crosses Galloway but on the ground it didn't feel like this. There were often sections with mixed woodland and huge areas that had been clear-felled a number of years ago were now exploding into new woods of birch and willow. I often head to northwest Scotland for my May holidays which can be barren and devoid of trees. But with all the woodland, the birdsong in Galloway in May was beautiful. I also really enjoyed the quietness of the route as I saw almost nobody on the trail itself and I loved the fact that the journey was not all through hills but passed through farmland, moorland and small settlements as well. It made for a really interesting walk. Here are some of the highlights from the route.

From the bus stop at Glen Trool Village, a series of beautiful woodland paths took me up into Glen Trool itself. Bluebells dotted the woodland floor and eventually the waters of Loch Trool came into sight. Beyond this, the rugged contours of the Galloway hills started to rise ahead of me.

I made a short detour from the trail to climb the Merrick, the highest hill in southern Scotland. It was late in the day by the time I was on the hill but I loved having it to myself because of this. From the top, I had a hazy view to the rock of Ailsa Craig, drifting off the Ayrshire shore. I descended part way and found a lovely spot for the tent that night beside the ruin of Culsharg. The cottage still had a good roof so was a great spot to sit out heavy rain next morning. The rain didn't deter the swallows that were nesting in the rafters and they swooped in and out through the glass-less windows. I sat here for hours, watching the world and listening to the birdsong.

I eventually continued eastwards, enjoying the lush woods and wildflowers. My next camp was close to White Laggan bothy at Loch Dee. This was a lovely spot with remnants of old farm walls, mixed woodland including beautiful old hawthorn trees and a strong sense of place lingering from days gone by. A long walk beyond here took me through mile after mile of forest to eventually pass into gentler terrain and farmland to reach Dalry.

Beyond Dalry, the Southern Upland Way crosses moorland and high pasture. The first morning out of Dalry was especially beautiful. I was up extra early from a riverside camp spot and the light was magical, casting a golden glow over the trail as it wound its way onward over the moor towards more hills.

I was soon climbing back up into the hills and enjoyed one of the real highlights of the walk as I came upon one of Andy Goldsworthy's Striding Arches sculptures on top of Benbrack Hill. What a stunning sight it was and I could see two other arches on adjacent hills. They are made of local sandstone and are free standing so there is no mortar or framework holding them up. As if all that was wasn't enough, I then had a great view of a golden eagle as I descended the other side of Benbrack.

From Benbrack, the Way dropped down into forestry and on this warm, sunny afternoon the aroma of the pine trees filled the air. The path meandered through the woods and seemingly in the middle of nowhere,  suddenly came upon Allan's Cairn. The cairn commemorates two Covenanters, George Allan and Margaret Gracie. Covenanters were a 17th century religious and political movement who refused to swear allegiance to the King and had to meet in secret. These two Covenanters had escaped capture for many years but were eventually tracked down and killed on this hillside. I camped a little way further on from the cairn for my final night out.

From Allan's Cairn the Southern Upland Way dropped to the valley of Scar Water before climbing again to cross Cloud Hill. There was a lovely surprise here as the waymarker posts had been cheerfully painted with dozens of different designs and mottos. They guided me through the hills and farms to my end point at Sanquhar. 

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Start: Glen Trool Village
Finish: Sanquhar
Public transport: Train to Girvan then Stagecoach bus 359 to Glen Trool Village. Train back from Sanquhar.
My route: Woodland path connects Glen Trool Village with Glen Trool visitor centre where the Southern Upland Way can be joined. Stayed on the north side of Loch Trool to pick up the path to the Merrick then followed the Southern Upland Way all the way to Sanquhar. It is a waymarked route but it's not always possible to see the next post and I did find myself using the map regularly, especially to find the route across farmland.    

Mull and Ulva - MacBraynes, trains and automobiles

I'd just finished pitching the tent at Killiechronan on Mull and was taking in the view over the bay, when a familiar voice shouted hello. It was the very nice man who'd just given me a lift there from the Ulva ferry, enabling me to avoid six miles of road walking. He lives on Ulva and had been doing a wee trip to the Spar shop at Salen, another few miles away on Mull, when he thought I might appreciate a few groceries as well. So it was that I had fresh milk, tomatoes and cheese to supplement my rations that evening!

It had been the latest mode of travel in a series of transport connections that got me to and around Mull and its neighbouring island, Ulva as a non car owner. Three trains, a ferry and a bus had transported me to Tobermory, the main settlement on Mull and thereafter I was mostly on foot except for the welcome lift that day. 

My backpacking trip had first taken me north out of Tobermory to walk Mull's quiet and rugged north coast. I was amazed how quickly I left the hustle and bustle of town, initially walking a quiet back road then picking up tracks and footpaths through the forests and down to the coast. I was soon looking for my first night's camp spot as it had been a long journey from home by public transport, about seven hours. I found a spot in the woods amongst a scatter of old ruins above the rocky coastline. Waves broke over the skerries in white plumes and the view stretched over the Sound of Mull to the rugged reaches of Ardnamurchan. The air was full with early summer birdsong and bluebells and primroses dotted the woodland floor. 

From here an interconnecting series of core paths and forest tracks took me south through a mixed landscape of woods, forestry, farmland and loch. It was quiet with a barely another soul afoot. A long walk along the shores of Loch Frisa rewarded with moody views of Mull's hills and the discovery of a beautiful place to linger, The Fank. Here a stunning rusted sculpture sat amidst the walls of a old sheep fank while meadow grasses and buttercups swayed in a gentle breeze. 

But my main goal in coming to Mull on this occasion was to cross to Ulva, a small island that sits off Mull's west coast. Ulva was a successful community buy-out in 2018 and I was keen to visit as I'd never been before. A small, privately-run ferry takes foot passengers back and forward as there are no vehicles on the island. When I arrived at the jetty, the first thing I had to do was summon the ferry which is done by moving a panel on a white noticeboard to uncover a red panel underneath. This is the signal that alerts the ferryman! 

Stepping off the ferry onto Ulva, the first thing that struck me was the amount of woodland with the main village of the island being scattered close to the ferry amongst the trees. There are no tarmac roads so dirt paths and tracks connect the farms and houses here and meander through the lush, green woods. Then beyond here large swathes of regenerating woods cloak the backbone of the island.  Before setting out on my walk across the island, I lingered a while at its little church. What a beautiful spot it was, hidden away in the trees and the bluebells. A memorial to islanders killed during the war was especially poignant as it must have been heartbreaking to have been ripped away from such a peaceful and idyllic place to fight in a distant war. 

I left the church via a path known as the Minister's Walk which ascended through knarly, old woods to join the main track across the island. Here the view opened up and the coconut aroma of the gorse flowers drifted on the warm summer breeze. I walked west until I reached the end of the island but that wasn't the end of my walk as I crossed a causeway onto Gometra, an island offshore from an island that is itself offshore from another island!

It took a little bit of effort to find a camp spot that night as the land was mostly rough and tussocky. I picked my way down to a rocky beach through woods and emerging bracken to find a relatively flat, tent-sized piece of grass that looked out over the sea. It was a place of rich sounds with the song of the woodland birds behind me and the sound of lapping waves and sea birds in front of me. 

Next day I wandered slowly back to the Ulva ferry on a slightly different path through the woods that brought me back via farmland framed by Ben More and its adjacent hills on Mull. Once back on the other side of the crossing, I then got my lucky lift to Killiechronan. This was my last night out in the tent on Mull before the lovely woodland walk through to Salen to start in reverse the journey home of bus, ferry and trains. 

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Lammermuir Hills - The Herring Road

Running from Dunbar through the Lammermuir Hills to Lauder, the Herring Road is the old route used by fishwives carrying creels of herring to market. The route has been in use since the 17th century and would have been used by a variety of travellers in the day as well as the fishwives. As we would be spending two and a bit days backpacking the route, we'd hoped that our heavy packs might give us a sense of what it must have been like carrying a heavy load through the hills here. Mind you, our packs were probably not as heavy as a creel of herring ... and certainly not as smelly.

The Herring Road is 28 miles long and uses a variety of countryside paths and hill tracks with the latter stages picking up a section of the Southern Upland Way. While there is some signage where the route crosses the hills, it's not a waymarked route so a bit of map reading was required to link together the network of trails and stick as faithfully as possible to the original "road".

The online route descriptions take the Herring Road out of Dunbar via the back road to Spott and Halls. After starting at the harbour, we instead headed a little way south to the hamlet of Broxburn. This avoided several miles of road walking and allowed us to string together a lovely route that used farm tracks and core paths to pass south of Spott and onto Halls. It was beautiful along here in spring sunshine with daffodils and primroses dotted through the woods. Our weather was a bit hazy but we could just make out Berwick Law and the Bass Rock. The views over the coast must be lovely on a clear day.

At Halls we came upon on the first sign for the Herring Road which pointed us up into the Lammermuir Hills. We left the green fields behind and climbed up into a rougher landscape of moor and bog, eventually passing into the Crystal Rig wind farm. The road was hard to follow here, being just a suggestion of a path through the bog but eventually we picked up some signs again and knew we were on the right route. Despite the turbines, I liked the landscape here. There were open woods, a sense of remoteness and big, open skies. 

By early evening, we were dropping down towards Whiteadder Reservoir and found a welcome spot for the tents in a quiet cleugh. We were tired as the going had been rough. Next morning there was a light frost on the tents, probably the last of the season. We continued along the Herring Road, briefly re-entering civilisation at the reservoir and its cluster of farms before climbing back up into the hills for a day of ups and downs. 

Wherever we passed through farmland on this route, we were amazed by the number of birds. Skylarks in the skies above; in the fields, curlews and more lapwings than I have ever seen. The lapwings were performing their spring display flights and the air was full of their bizarre, almost electronic sounding song. After the next rise, we dropped down to Dye Cottage then passed up and over the next hill to drop to Watch Water where we picked up the path of the Southern Upland Way.

From every high point that morning, we had been able to see the two giant cairns of Twin Law, the highest point of our route. The Southern Upland Way took us gently up to the summit of Twin Law but the hazy day limited the views. We stopped of course to sign the visitor book which was placed inside an old munitions box in the bigger of the two cairns. 

The Herring Road continued southwest in mile after mile of gentle undulations. Eventually we left the open hills and passed back into green farmland. The road briefly parts company with the Southern Upland Way at Braidshawrig Farm and just south of here we pitched the tents for a second night out.

The last morning's walk was wonderful as the Herring Road rejoined the Southern Upland Way and passed through a landscape that I rarely find myself walking through. Here the road continued to Lauder through rolling green hills and woodland copses. At times the path cut across the middle of fields and other times, it kept company with old, stone dykes along the margins. Again, the fields were full with lapwings. To the south, the unmistakable outline of the Eildon Hills was our compass point for the final few miles into Lauder. 

Waiting for the bus home with coffee and cake was a time for reflection on the walk. The Lammermuir Hills are far from being the most scenic part of Scotland and are largely heather-clad, shapeless lumps. But the route had delivered an unexpected sense of remoteness and an abundance of birds that livened each mile. As well as this, following the old road and understanding something of its past, really made our trip quite special. Hats off to the fishwives of the day who walked this route laden with herring.

Fact File

Start: Dunbar harbour
Finish: Lauder
Public transport: East Coast Buses X7 from Edinburgh to Dunbar; Borders Buses 51 from Lauder to Edinburgh
My route: From Dunbar walked south along the A1087 to Broxburn. Turned right at Broxburn and just before an underpass a dirt path heads south alongside the railway line. It reaches an underpass for the A1 and railway line. Went through this and followed the signed core path to Spott House. Continued passed Spott House and where the track met a road turned right, then first track to the left. Followed this which becomes a footpath and passes through the valley of the Black Loch. Path continued across a field and joins a track to Halls. Just before the farm at Halls, the footpath is signed across a bridge. It joins a road where we turned left and at the road end is a sign for the Herring Road. The rest of the route can be found on the Scotways Heritage Paths website. It is vague at points across Dunbar Common/Crystal Rig wind farm but keeps on a consistent trajectory and eventually picks up signage. Easy navigation once the Southern Upland Way is joined as it is waymarked but the Herring Road leaves it Braidshawrig Farm - pass in front of the farm, cross the Wester Burn and follow the grassy track on the west side of the valley skirting Wheelburn Law. It rejoins the Way after a couple of kilometres for the rest of the route to Lauder.