Sixteen Strollers met at Longniddry station
to walk along the old railway line to Haddington. This was a good place to meet
as it gave the option of travel by train, bus or car to get to the start of the
walk.
Longniddry lays claims to being where the first meeting of the Scottish Women's Rural
Institute took place organised by Catherine Hogg Blair in 1917 as well as home
for a time to John Knox, and Pierce Brosnan.
It was a dullish start to the walk but it was
a warm day and in the enclosed surroundings of the railway line it was a relief
to be out of the sun. As we walked we should have seen views of Redhouse
Castle, a 15th century tower house, as well as Hopetoun Monument on top of
Byres Hill, dedicated to John Hope, the 4th Earl of Hopetoun (1765-1823). With
the growth of trees and bushes there wasn’t much to see.
Our leader almost passed the stopping place
for lunch but luckily others pointed it out to him. It started to rain after a
short break so we decided to keep moving and then met a group of riders who
couldn’t pass until brollies were put down as the first horse was very nervous of the shape of
them. We then only had to contend with groups of cyclist who all seemed to
appear at one time. Obviously rush hour traffic between Longniddry and
Haddington.
As we approached Haddington, there were signs
of a lot of new house building going on. It may be this disruption that
caused our leader to lose his sense of direction and take us straight to the
main road to get into Haddington rather than along the nice quiet path. We had
time for people to grab a snack or meal before catching buses back to
Edinburgh.
Thanks to Ronnie for leading the walk and
trying not to lose us too many times!
