Walk No. 216: John Muir Way - Cramond Brig Toll to High Street, South Queensferry
Date: Thursday 20th April 2017
Distance: 5.3 miles approximately
This linear walk followed part of the John Muir Way through the grounds of Dalmeny Estate. On a windy, dry, sometimes bright April day thirty
Strollers met up to walk to South
Queensferry. One even then walked back, while the rest of us
caught the bus or had left a car near the end. Walking through the Rosebery
Estate and parallel with the River Almond and on down to the sea shore the wind
dropped away and it became a nice calm day for a lovely walk. Passing Eagle
Rock, which has a carving of an eagle reputedly done by a Roman Soldier from
the garrison at the River Almond, we made our way along the edge of the 9 hole
golf course towards Dalmeny House.
Dalmeny House & Estate has been home to the Earls of Rosebery since 1662
and the house itself was completed in 1817. It marked a great departure in
Scottish architecture with its Tudor Gothic style and its highly-decorated
chimneys and crenellations, looked back toward fanciful 16th-century English
mansions, such as Hampton Court.
The house hosts a collection of Napoleon memorabilia, as well as paintings by
artists such as Raeburn and Gainsborough. Prior to this the family stayed in Barnbougle Castle which is on the site of a
medieval tower house built by the Mowbray family which was destroyed and then
rebuilt in the 19th century. At Barnbougle the fifth Earl of Rosebery (Prime
Minister) practised his speeches in a gallery hall built for the purpose.
We then continued
through the woodland past Fishery Cottage which gains it name from the
salmon netting undertaken until the 1950s when declining stocks of salmon made
the operation uneconomic. You can see the remains of the wooden piles along the
seashore. Continuing on past the Hound Point Terminal where oil
tankers from all over the world stop to load up with oil from the North Sea which has been refined at Grangemouth Refinery
further up the river. The oil is then stored at Dalmeny Tank Farm, near Dalmeny Village, before onward transmission to
the oil terminal at Hound Point. Then on towards South
Queensferry realising it was still windy, before finishing our
walk under the Forth Rail bridge.
Our thanks to Ian for organising a very nice walk and for arranging such good
weather.
