Site Designed, Produced and Maintained by
Pixelwave Design.
|
|
| ||||||
| Member Details | Session Description |
Toys Used |
| Owner:
squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2881 |
3rd July 2017 Hiking - Walking: St Abbs Head and Fast Castle Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered: Monday 3rd July – Walks ***** St Abbs Head and Fast Castle – sunny Our third night in the lovely Berwick-Upon-Tweed but we are moving on today as the road is going to be closed to fit new harbour ladders. So up early and left about nine with no sign of the workmen and head up to a large Tesco to stock up on more healthy stuff:) Tides not brilliant for getting onto Holy Island so we drive into Scotland instead, stopping on the border for a pic, amazing blue sky with wispy clouds – stunning! Turn off the A1 at the first opportunity ending up in Eyemouth harbour where we watch a couple of seals mug the fishing boats as they come in after fish! Pay carpark so carried on past Coldingham Bay and down the narrow road into St Abbs with its tiny harbour surrounded by fantastic cliffs. At £7 a day to park here we leave the dive boats to their fun and drive just up the hill to St Abbs National Reserve, a nice café, gallery and the start of the cliff walks and only £3 a day to park but no overnight! Mag packs a top salad and we set off down to the cliffs at 10.20. According to the notice board St Abb’s Head has some of the most spectacular cliffs on the East coast of Britain and they were not wrong! We were soon on the cliff path with steep drops down to crystal clear water with great views down to St Abbs harbour with Holy Island and Bamburgh Castle in the distance. You could stick to the path or be more adventurous by exploring out on the rocky crags cut by the sea. The usual birds were here, Gannets flying out to sea, huge numbers of Guillemots (we did see three on land on their nests this time though), Razorbills, Kittiwakes, Cormarants and for the first time this holiday Fulmars. We then came to a tiny beach and the footpath then skirted the huge Kirk Hill which was good as we didn’t fancy climbing that! It was here that we came across several dead rabbits that had been eaten, a bit gross really! It was then a climb up to the lighthouse which is very short as it’s on a very tall cliff already. With the old lighthouse keeper’s cottage, lighthouse and a disused red large fog horn set against the wispy blue sky it was just out of this world:) Mag read that the inventor of most lighthouses around this coast was the Grandfather of the Stephenson who wrote Treasure Island and his inspiration came from visiting so many islands and peninsulas’ with his Granddad to set up lighthouses :) There was as usual a good breeze blowing so after walking down to the fog horn we tucked in behind the lighthouse for our delicious ham salad with a pork pie (semi healthy??). Refreshed we continued and were surprised to find a small carpark with a narrow tarmac road leading to it! More extreme birdwatching coming out high above Pettico Wick, a tiny harbour used to service the lighthouse before the road was built and yet another carpark! You could follow this road back to the centre making it a circular walk so we scrambled down and went that way. Again, the scenery was stunning as you looked over to the high cliffs with the small Mire Loch in the valley. We were thrilled to see a Weasel dancing along the drystone wall just ahead of us :) Nearly back at the centre we came to a closed farm gate with a sign saying that this was a private road for access to the disabled only and no overnight stopping with an honesty box asking for £3 but most ignored this and just went anyway! We passed some old cottage, one a B & B with a collection of literally hundreds on knitting needles in the conservatory, then a small enclosure stuffed full of noisy sheep followed by a whopper bull! The centre carpark was now pretty full with people from The Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Italy and German! A really European destination :) We moved on looking for somewhere to stop tonight in Scotland – just because we can! We check Coldingham beach first, top free carpark but no overnight so back to the coast road. There is a small road leading to Fast Castle and were lucky enough to find it! It was to Dowlaw 2 miles down a narrow tarmac road, more like a farm track including a couple of cattle grids! We do come to a farm but also a small carpark with an old French campervan already here. Nice views up to the Firth of Forth so decide to put the kettle on, there is a sign for the castle ¾ mile down. We speak to a nice couple from Melrose who say although the path is very steep it’s well worth it. So, after a cuppa and carrot cake (healthyish???) we set off to the castle. Once out of a tiny pine wood, a field with two sheep led onto a section through heather with some of it coming into bloom. The path then drops very steeply down to a small ruin on a tiny out crop of rock, why they ever built a castle here goodness only knows but apparently Mary Queen of Scots visited, she must have been lost! We sat amongst the ruins for ages watching the bird action – including a hopeless Fulmer male trying and failing dismally to land on a tiny ledge to feed the missus!! We slowly made our way back to the van. We decide to stop here tonight as the Frenchman is staying even though a leaflet we got says No Overnight Parking, can’t see anyone complaining as we are in the middle of nowhere! Mag makes a top stir-fry and we are treated to the most beautiful hare with golden eyes sitting right beside the van and a lovely red sky sunset. Must have walked nearly 7 miles, mainly uphill it seems, and are knackered perhaps we will take it easy tomorrow! Photo Gallery here Tuesday 4th July – sightsee travel in the rain :( Woke in Fast Castle carpark with the sound of rain on the roof, that’s 6 out of 16 days we have had some rain, only a little depressing! With tomorrow looking better we decided to do a loop around Scotland ending up back somewhere near Holy Island so we can bike in. Passed an ugly power station and cement works, Dunbar with a nice little harbour and some good places to park but too wet to stop. Following the coast road, we looked at Tantallon Castle but required an extortionate entrance fee so quickly moved on past the impressive Bass Rock covered in bird poo and a lighthouse but you couldn’t park and not the day for a boat trip although some braved it. Then at North Berwick we found a Tesco and there is a top hill behind, The North Berwick Law, which would be worth a climb on a nice day. We found a nice spot at the end of the prom for lunch watching the terns fishing - again too wet for a walk on the beach. This is called the Golf route as there are at least half a dozen courses including Muirfield, the home of the Scottish Open! Heading inland now for the Lammer Muir Hills a wild moorland area with cattle grids and sheep on the road but shrouded in low cloud and grey. We passed Whiteadder Reservoir which leads to the tributary we cycled along the other day, before heading to the Mc Donald’s in Berwick-Upon-Tweed. It was then our troubles continued, it always happens when you are having a crap day, the laptop quickly connected to the free wi-fi but Google Chrome refused to open even though Mags mobile was working fine – don’t you just love computers:( We tried updating the virus protection and ran a full scan with no success so gave up and will have to sort it out at home! We didn’t think it worth trying our Berwick harbour spot with the road closure and options to stop overnight within biking distance were looking thin on the ground just one dead-end lane leading to Goswick. We turned down the lane not holding much hope of a small carpark at the end with a bike route to the Island. It looked bad when just past Goswick Golf club the road ended with a sign saying Private Road access to Coastguard Cottages only:( but then the good news, there was a bike sign carrying on:) We checked the OS map and discovered that the path continued to the road to Holy Island, we just need somewhere to park for the night? Returning to the Golf Club we saw saying no vehicular access to the beach, walkers please use the Large Golf Club carpark:) We thought it a bit cheeky to park without asking so were going to go into the club house but bumped into an official in a golf buggy and asked if he knew where we could park for the night so we could bike tomorrow and he said at the end of their carpark – what a result:) We thanked him and parked up, we were going to walk to the beach but the rain continues :( Mag tried to sort out the laptop then cooked another top stir-fry, let’s hope the nice weather returns tomorrow! |
Toys Used:
Statsbar:
| |||||||
  |
|
|
|||||||
|
Web Design in Wales, UK by 
Pixelwave Design.
© Alan R Cole 2000...