On a gloriously sunny and warm day eighteen
Strollers met at Colinton Village for a walk past Bonaly Tower, Torduff and
Clubbiedean Reservoirs, round to Kinleith farm, down to Torphin Quarry and back
to Colinton village.
With the road works in the village and the
confusing instructions the walk coordinator passed out, it started off as a
mystery tour! Once they got moving the Strollers eventually worked their way up
through the houses at Bonaly and past Bonaly Tower which dates from around 1839
and was built to imitate a Peel tower. The Bonaly Outdoor Centre was
acquired in 1931 by the Scout Association and is used by parties of Scouts,
Guides and other youth groups, both from the local area and further afield. We
stopped to let everyone get their breath back as the route the co-ordinator
chose was a tad steep. This gave the Strollers time to look at the Alpacas in
the field below.
We crossed over the end of Torduff reservoir
and on to the road round to Clubbiedean reservoir where we stopped for lunch.
The Edinburgh Water Company constructed both reservoirs around 1848 and 1850 to
serve the city of Edinburgh. Neither are used for this now but Clubbiedean is
used a trout fishing area. From here we circled round to Easter Kinleith farm which was the location of a civil Starfish decoy, on Warklaw Hill in the 2nd World War.
Along the way we saw the work being carried
out for the £20 million project and 12 km of new pipes being installed by
Scottish Water to make the water supply more resilient and expandable for all
the new housing in and around Edinburgh.
We stopped to look at the stunning views as
we came down to Torphin as the good weather made the vista really clear over
the Forth and to the West as well as over Edinburgh.
As we neared the end of the walk we passed Tiphereth which is a
day and residential community for adults with learning disabilities and is part
of Camphill Scotland. We then made our way back to Colinton village and the end
of the walk.
Our thanks to Drew for arranging a walk on a
very hot day.
