Ten intrepid Strollers met at Colinton village to walk up the road to Bonaly, Torduff and Clubbidean reservoirs then back over the old Torphin Golf course. I say ten but one of the Strollers missed their bus and had to chase along to catch up at the Bonaly lower car park where we met one of the other Strollers who had decided to cut out some of the hill by parking there.
It was a lovely day for strolling past the
field of Alpacas on the way to Torduff and on to Clubbidean. We sat on the wall
there and enjoyed lunch in the sunshine, watching the fishermen out in boats
and the fish jumping out of the water. The little house at the edge of
Clubbidean now does takeaways from Friday to Sunday for anyone who wants to do
that walk on their own.
From there we headed back over Torphin golf
course which gave us tremendous views back over Torduff and the city. We then
continued on to the highest point of Torphin passing the remnants of the golf
course. There were markers behind where greens were so you knew where to hit
the ball and steps that you could go up to see if it was clear to play. From
the top we could see all the way out to West Lothian over Currie and Balerno
and down East Lothian all the way to the Bass Rock and North Berwick Law.
Torphin used to host a ladies’ golf competition in memory of a great American lady golfer, Babe Zaharias, who won the British Ladies Amateur at Gullane in 1947, as well as being an Olympic Gold medallist. Her husband presented the trophy to be played for by Scottish Ladies in 1956 after she died at the age of 45.
From here we headed back down over the course
past the old club house which is now part of Tiphereth Camphill, a charity for
adults with learning difficulties and back to Colinton Village.
The next walk will be a lot flatter!
Our thanks to Drew for arranging the walk on
a lovely day.
