Strollers Walk 250 - Edinburgh and the Enlightenment

Fifty-five Strollers met at the Old Quad of Edinburgh University for a walk round some of the sites relating to the Enlightenment period in Edinburgh.  
Led by our Blue Badge Guides, Karen and Helen, we heard about the background to the Old Quad itself which is now the centre for Law at the University. We moved up to Surgeons Hall to hear about its beginnings and then through it thanks to Karen’s way of managing to talk us into places without paying!

From there, we went down to the ‘old’ infirmary. The infirmary had been founded in 1729 in Robertson’s Close, but with only 4 beds. In 1736 it received a Royal Charter and a new Infirmary was built in Infirmary Street with 228 beds. It then moved to Lauriston Place in 1879 as Edinburgh expanded and needed more hospital space. It is now at Little France.

From here we went down to the Old School Yards, (not the Cat Stevens song!) site of the first High School before it moved to Calton Hill. It was attended by Sir Walter Scott and by James Pillans who invented the blackboard and coloured chalk there. The building then became part of the hospital and later the University. It now houses the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation. The Flodden Wall also backs onto this site.

We headed up to Chambers Street to hear about squares that used to exist where the Heriot Watt University, Adam House and the Museum of Scotland all now stand. We also heard about the goings on of Burke and Hare as well as brief notes on many of the other luminaries who were in Edinburgh at the time of the Enlightenment.

We finished up at St Giles Cathedral hearing about John Knox’s influence on education and who the other statues commemorated.

As with the January walk we couldn’t have had a better day for a walk - particularly as our guides had got their dates wrong and had turned up the week before when the weather was really bad! Still it gave them an opportunity to walk the walk!  

Our thanks again to Karen and Helen for providing a very interesting walk and Karen has taken note of suggestions for next year. 

Strollers Walk 249 - Newhaven

On what turned out to be a calm and balmy January day, 34 Strollers met at Newhaven for a tour of the historic village led by our Blue Badge Guides Karen and Helen. Given the weather of the previous days, it turned out to be a really nice day for the walk. Hopefully the rest of this year’s walks will be as calm! 

We met up outside the Brewers Fayre and walked past the fish market and Loch Fyne Restaurant on our way to Newhaven village, on what is reclaimed land. The River Forth used to go all the way up to the village. At one time the Forth was called the Frisian Sea. This is said to be due to the link with the Frisian Islands and settlers from there.

People from Newhaven have the nickname of BowTows. Thanks to Ann P for passing on the source of this nickname. It’s from the buoys and tow ropes. The men from Newhaven used to be the pilots for access to this part of the Forth as well as fisherman.

Newhaven fishwives were famous throughout the country for their brightly coloured traditional outfits, quick wits and for their sharp tongues, which gave rise to the Scots’ expression ‘a tongue like a fishwife’. In the 19th Century they became an attraction for the new art of photography.

Newhaven was redeveloped in the 1960s. The buildings more in keeping with how the village used to look were the work of the eminent Scottish modern architect Sir Basil Spence. He incorporated the ‘sets’ from the road into his designs and used them as bricks in the newly built houses. Everyone was moved out whilst this work was being done and it led to the loss of quite a few of the shops and pubs which had been in the village.

Andrew Wood Square is named after Sir Andrew Wood, a sea captain who traded with the Netherlands but also acted as a privateer for James III preying on English ships. His ship the Caravel also acted as the Britannia of its day for the king and his wife. He also commanded the Great Michael when it was built and launched at Newhaven before becoming ambassador to France and then Regent for the young James V. He was granted lands at Largo in Fife and built a canal to get to church.

The Society of Free Fishermen of Newhaven, dating from at least 1572, was one of the oldest Friendly Societies in Scotland. It survived until 1989.

We finished at St Andrew’s Free Church which was founded in 1843 when the Church of Scotland split in the Disruption. It re-joined in 1929 and the congregation moved in 1974 to the older Newhaven Parish Church.

It was then time to head off for the obligatory plate of soup or scone!  

Our thanks to Helen and Karen for a very interesting walk.

Strollers 2020 Dates

Date	Day	No	Where	Coordinator
16 January	Thursday	248	Historic Walk –  Newhaven	Karen MacCormick
25 February	Tuesday	249	Historic Walk –   Princes St East	Karen MacCormick
18 March	Wednesday	250
16 April	Thursday	251
19 May	Tuesday	252
17 June	Wednesday	253
14 July	Tuesday	254
20 August	Thursday	255
22 September	Tuesday	256
14 October	Wednesday	257
19 November	Thursday	258
3 December	Thursday	259	Christmas Lunch	Drew Young

Strollers Walk 248 - Christmas Lunch

Seventy Strollers met at the Royal Scots Club in Abercrombie Place to enjoy Christmas Lunch and be entertained by the Strolling Minstrels.

It was good to see so many ‘old’ faces at the lunch and take the time to catch up with Strollers who hadn’t been on walks for a while. After pre-lunch drinks in the bar, we were piped through to the hall by Jim Cooper, and our thanks to him for doing it.

After a very nice lunch we were then entertained to songs from the musicals by the Strolling Minstrels. As well as the songs from the musicals, there were also some songs with some of the words changed to reflect the walks the Strollers had done throughout the year. They finished off with some sing-along numbers which everyone joined in with gusto.

Many thanks to John for all his directorial work and to all the other singing Strollers, Joan who organised the singers, Violet, Liz, Isobel, Barbara, Moira, Eleanor, Tom and Peter.

It was then time for everyone to make their way home, and as usual it was raining when it was time to go! 

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone and we look forward to seeing you all on walks in 2020.

Strollers Walk 247 Haymarket to Leith

Thirty one Strollers met at Haymarket Station to walk to Leith, finishing at Ocean Terminal. There was some confusion at the meeting point. As it was a cold day we had moved inside the station for some warmth but some Strollers thought we had already gone. We all managed to get together! The weather stayed dry though cold for all of the walk.

Following the tram tracks to Roseburn, we then joined the cycle path which follows the old Caledonian Line, part of the North Edinburgh Network. This was created after 1981 when Lothian Regional Council bought the trackway from British Rail and along with support from Spokes and Sustrans it is now part of the many cycle ways around the region.

Crossing the Water of Leith and past Ravelston, we made our way down to Craigleith. Now a shopping centre, Craigleith Quarry at one time produced a lot of the stone used in the buildings of Edinburgh and beyond. From here we took the path down past Pilton to Crewe Toll where Ferranti was once a huge employer. The site is now run by BAE.

We passed all the flats which are built on the site of what was the McTaggart & Mickel depot and the playing fields of Ainslie Park School. The school was rebuilt with new areas further along near what was the site of Parsons Peebles. This factory was mostly destroyed by a fire and the company moved to Leith. Their site is also now all flats. As we walked on we passed the Edinburgh Sculpture Centre which was opened here in 2012 by Fiona Hyslop, who some may remember from her days in Marketing. It offers opportunities for people to use facilities for sculptures using wood, stone and metal and has an active interaction with local schools.

It was amazing how quickly the Strollers departed at the end of the walk to seek out the scones and more in Ocean terminal! 

Our thanks to Drew for arranging the walk on a dry day.

Strollers Walk 246 -Inverkeithing to Aberdour

Would it rain or would it not? That was the question as fourteen Strollers met at Inverkeithing to walk the Fife Coastal Path to Aberdour. Though it was the second question after there was confusion as to why the queue at Greggs was so big. In fact it was for the reopening of the Scotmid store next door which had been badly affected by the heavy rain in August and some people had started queuing around 6.00 a.m. Good news for the Strollers as this meant they could boost their energy levels with the coffee and bacon roll deal from Greggs without waiting in the queue. Our thanks to Joan for coming along, even though she wasn’t fit enough to go on the walk, but to open up the church to allow use of the facilities and to admire the stain glass windows.

The rain started just after the Strollers set off but only lasted for 5 minutes and after that it was a lovely day for the walk. There were a few puddles and muddy patches along the way after the heavy rain of the previous days but the path on the whole was in good shape.

The Strollers passed through St David’s Bay and its harbour which was once a thriving coal port connected to coal mines of the long-vanished Fordell village. During WW2 this little harbour was also used by mine-sweepers. We took the opportunity here and later in Dalgety Bay to admire some of the big houses which have wonderful views over the Forth.

We came down to Donibristle Bay and the site of Donibristle House. It was largely destroyed by fire in 1858 but a new building which bears some resemblance to the architecture and dimensions of the original house has been built there. Along with the servants’ wings they have now been converted into modern residences. Donibristle was used as an airfield from 1917 as a base for the Royal Naval Air Service. It was then used between WW1 and WW2 as an aircraft repair depot and a shore base for disembarked aircraft carrier squadrons. During WW2 it was known officially as HMS Merlin and the aerodrome was used as a Royal Naval Aircraft Repair Yard, a shore base for torpedo aircraft and as a deck-landing training unit. After the war it was renamed HMS Cochrane, and remained a busy flying airfield. Propeller driven aircraft like the Firefly, Barracuda, Seafire, Sea Fury, Anson and Oxford flew from it until the Navy decided its runways were too short to handle the Fleet Air Arm’s new jet aircraft and in 1959 ‘Doni-bee’ was closed. Ronnie remembered his father working here during the decommissioning process. There were also all the signs advising not to use the beach due to the radioactive material dumped there when the planes were being broken up.

At the ancient St Bridget’s Kirk, the Strollers took time to explore the preserved building with its small cemetery and good views back to Edinburgh and the Pentland Hills. The first record of a Kirk being here is in 1178 but there was probably one here earlier. The Kirk was granted to the Abbey of Inchcolm by William the Lion. Each year a service is held even though the church is in ruins with the roof collapsed.

From here the Strollers made their way up to the Beech Avenue and along past Braefoot Bay which is now used as the docking place for the tankers bringing the products for the gas production plant at Mossmorran.

We then passed St Colme House, named after Inchcolm Island, and Aberdour golf course which was founded in 1896 finishing up at the lovely entrance gates in the middle of Aberdour. Having just missed the bus back to Inverkeithing, though the more fleet of foot managed to catch it, it was time for scones and tea while waiting on the next one.

Our thanks to Drew for arranging the walk and the weather.

Strollers Walk 245 - Hermitage of Braid

Nine Strollers met at the Hermitage of Braid for a stroll round the park, though we did pick up another couple of wayward Strollers at the Paddock who had gone to the wrong gate to start the walk.

We began by going to the walled garden and Doocot. Part of the walled garden has been terraced with new stone dykes and seating areas as well as being designed to attract insects with the planting and ‘hotel’.It took 1200 volunteers over 2 years to do all the work. The Doocot is the second largest in Edinburgh, the one at Inch House on Gilmerton Road is larger, but both hosted around 2000 pigeons which were used for food.

We passed by the back of the big houses at the Grange and made our way down to Blackford Pond where we saw a family of swans serenely gliding along. The pond is not natural but was created in the Victorian era and used for curling. From there we made our way up to the Blackford Observatory where we stopped for a lunch break.

The Observatory opened in 1896 to replace the one on Calton Hill and was built by the Earl of Crawford after the government decided to do away with the role of Scottish Astronomer.  It is still in use today, though more as an administration and scientific centre for Astronomy as the telescopes now being used are in more remote locations like Hawaii and Australia to avoid light pollution.

We then walked down and past Agassiz Rock named after the Swiss geologist Louis Agassiz who came here in 1840 to study the rock formation and put forward his theories on the formation of the rock structure and the Ice Age.

Following the path along the Braid Burn, we passed Hermitage House which was designed in 1785 by the famous Scots’ architect John McDougal. He gifted The Hermitage to the City of Edinburgh and it opened as a park on 10 June 1938. The area is thought to take its name from one Henri de Brad, who owned the land here in the 12^th century, and was also a Sheriff of Edinburgh.

We finished back where we started at the ‘Toll House’. You once had to pay tolls to travel on the roads into Edinburgh. The Toll House used to be at the boundary on the side of the Braid Church in Morningside. When tolls were abolished in 1888, the house was rebuilt here – look for the number 259 on the lintel at the back of the house. This is now the Lodge Cafe where a few of us went for light refreshments after the walk.

Our thanks to Drew for arranging the walk on a dry day and hopefully he will have come up with a venue for October soon.

Outing to the Museum of Flight and North Berwick - Wednesday 18 September

Twenty nine of us headed down to Dunbar Garden Centre for a lovely coffee stop and a little retail therapy.

We then headed to the Museum of Flight at East Fortune where we spent a very enjoyable time, visiting Concorde and various other activities. This included some or part of the assault course where several ladies had a go on the zip wire. (There is photographic and video evidence!)

After that, we headed off to North Berwick where we spent an hour or so walking, shopping and even paddling in the North Sea. (Liz was on hand with the dish towels to dry some wet & sandy feet).

The Nether Abbey Hotel was the venue for our lovely high tea after which we headed home.

An excellent and enjoyable day out with a very friendly bus driver.

Strollers Walk 244 Peebles to Cademuir Hill

Fifteen Strollers met at the Kingsmeadows Road car park in Peebles to walk round Cademuir Hill and part of the John Buchan Way.

John Buchan had many associations with the Peebles area and most people would remember him for “The Thirty-Nine Steps.” as well as being Governor General of Canada.

The group made their way up to Tantah farm where the path then went to the right along the side of Cademuir Hill. It was quite muddy at this point and the co-ordinator was worried that, with the amount of rain that had fallen over the previous few days,   areas of the path might prove difficult to circumnavigate. He opted to go into Cademuir Wood and follow the path up to forest path up to Cademuir Hill top. The paths underfoot were a lot better going if not at the level 3 that had been on the details of the walk! Someone thought it reminded them of their trek up Mach Picchu, others just asked for oxygen masks.

The group had to take avoiding action for a frog that was hogging the pathway and then met up with a very friendly collie that wanted everyone to take a shot at throwing its ball for it to fetch back.

Finally reaching the top of the hill, the views were tremendous and the path that they should have taken could be seen far below in the distance! It was also a tad breezy at the top and the Strollers huddled round the picnic table to keep from being blown over. It had been warm coming through the trees but there was about a 15 degree drop in temperature at the top of the hill.

From here they could look down on the hill forts that are thought to date from the Iron Age, with the larger fort being about the size of two football pitches and the smaller one about half a football pitch.

The forest had been the hiding place of 2 German air force pilots in the Second World War. They had bailed out in the area and were only discovered due to the smoke from their fire. At some points the Strollers thought they might have to be rescued but at least it was downhill going back to the car park.  A well-deserved coffee and lunch was the reward for some of the Strollers after the walk.

Our thanks to Drew for arranging the walk and hopefully it will be flatter in September!

July 2019 Outing to Ayr Races

Forty five members met on Waterloo Place on a rather grey July  morning for our trip to Ayr races.

Our coffee stop was at one of our usual haunts, MacKinnon Mills, Coatbridge. As we had an extra fifteen minutes, we didn't have the usual rush. Several of our members took advantage of the sales, including your chairman. 

We arrived at Ayr Racecourse in good time and the sun came out. It was a glorious afternoon. More than a few of us had winners - am not sure they were all down to knowing the form! My own preferred method is choosing by horse name or the riders' silks! (It worked!)

From there we headed to The Fenwick hotel where we enjoyed our high tea. the food and service was up to out expected standard.

We did have some further rain on the way back but it didn't spoil a cracking day out.

Thanks to Moira for organising.

Outing to Blair Castle and Pitlochry

The weather was good to us on the morning of the outing which meant the views were clear as 59 of us travelled north. It rained later on but everyone came prepared for the change.
There were good reports about the service at Dobbies in Perth. Liz altered our timing with Alan, our driver, as it was a busy day.
Blair Atholl Castle has well planned welcome and tour systems. We were split into two groups for a short introduction then followed the clear route individually round the historic rooms. There are information sheets in every room with guides on hand to answer any questions. It is all stunning. Stags' antlers are everywhere and are very impressive. Some ladies squirmed at the ones which had skulls attached, and there were a lot of them but not our Liz. Like others, I took time to enjoy the inside of the castle so missed a walk round the gardens. The trees are beautiful so I'd like to return in the autumn. An excellent venue for us.
A short bus journey later we arrived in Pitlochry where it was raining. That never stops a little shopping! We left just under an hour later to reach the Huntingtower Hotel outside Perth in good time for high tea. It was our first time at the hotel. The food was very good, as was the service. All empty plates at my table.
We left at 6.30 for the journey back to Edinburgh. Alan let us know that the drivers must now limit the number of drop off stops to two. This time they were the West End and Waterloo Place.
A good day out. 
Thanks to Liz for her report. Your chairman was unhappy to have missed this one.

Strollers Walk 243 - Dalkeith to Musselburgh 16 July

On a warm sultry day fifteen Strollers met at Dalkeith to walk to Musselburgh.

Starting a walk near a Greggs or Morrison’s’ cafe always seems to work well for those needing the boost of a coffee and bacon roll before the start. The close proximity of the public toilets was an added bonus!

 Making our way from the centre of Dalkeith we headed up to the Dalkeith Schools’ Community Campus which houses 3 schools in one area, St David’s High, Dalkeith High and Saltersgate. The 3 schools share the sport and leisure facilities as well as being used by the local community.

Here we joined the cycle track and footpath on the old railway line to make our way down to Whitecraig. The village was built in the early 20th Century to house mine workers. Passing through Whitecraig and down Cowpits Road, we were on the edge of the site of the Battle of Pinkie fought in 1547 as part of the Henry VIII’s ‘Rough Wooing’ of Mary Queen of Scots. This was a major defeat for the large Scottish Army.

At this point we were also walking over one of the old mine shafts.  We made our way down to the River Esk and a very welcome stop for lunch. The fields to our side at one time housed prehistoric dwellings and Roman camps.  As we continued on our way, we passed below the historic village of Inveresk. This is where the Romans are said to have based their headquarters for administering their Northern Territories in Britain.

We finished our walk at Tesco just short of the Roman Bridge which was used by the Scottish forces on the way to the Battle of Pinkie.  

Our thanks to Drew for arranging the walk and hopefully it won’t be quite as hot for the next walk in August.

Strollers Walk 242 - Bonaly and Torphin Circle 19 June

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. 

The next walk will be flatter as we’ll be doing Dalkeith to Musselburgh!