East Lothian

Where else would we spend our last full day in Scotland….

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Well what a surprise today turned out – wall to wall sunshine and beautifully warm. After a few domestic chores (the Dyson is brilliant – Poppydog watch out!), we left our washing out on the line to air dry (a novelty in itself as it has either been too windy or too showery to risk) and set off for our favourite beach.

Eyebroughy beach – it doesn’t actually havery a name according to Mr OS but I tthink it deserves one and the island at the far end of the beach is called Eyebroughy – so that works for me!

We had a lovely afternoon and I don’t need to say anymore….

Two thoughts of the day:

I think this is the best all round place we have stayed, so far on our journey – plenty of walks from site, 4 beaches within easy reach – 3 of them generally empty and quite a few more within walking distance, walking distance to busy town of North Berwick and pretty villages of Gullane and Dirleton – ideal. St David’s in Pembrokeshire would be my second choice.

Sad to think that this us our last full day in Scotland for the time being but we will be back and will definitely call in here again.

A local beach run for us today…

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It was a very windy night and incidentally it didn’t occur to me to close the window to cut down on the noise until stupid o clock! By the morning the wind had died down a little but it was still quite wild though dry and quite sunny but only warm in the shelter. We are treating ourselves to a couple more beach days within walking distance of site, so today we headed down to Broad Sands.

Then off to the west to Eyebroughy Beach, our personal favourite and as per not a body in sight.

After a good stretch on here we wandered around the headland and along Muirhead Beach.

A good 6.5 mile tramp, battling the wind on the way out and being blown all the way back – one happy and hopefully tired Poppydog!

Walking along Peffer Sands….

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A dry and windy night followed by a dry and windy day! However, a little sun around in the afternoon so really very pleasant out of the breeze. As a final link along this shoreline, we parked up in a lay-by on the main road and walked the couple of miles down the farm access road to the shore on the west side of Peffer Burn (we did the east side whilst staying in Dunbar).

What a glorious sight – just miles of sand to the east of the burn…

And to the west, which we are exploring today…

Poppydog heaven, making footsteps in the pristine sand.

To the west of Peffer Sands the beach becomes rocky with a relatively narrow strip of soft sand running along until Scoughall Rocks, where it is totally rocky until you get to the end of Seacliff, where we were yesterday.

From here we could gave cut back inland towards the car, but it is so lovely here we chose to walk back along the beach instead.

A final play on Peffer Sands…

Before battling against the rising wind all the way back to the car! 6.5 miles.

Two thoughts of the day:

Well I have to say that so far on our Scottish adventure the beaches here have been absolutely stunning, good for walking to and along and importantly for us mostly deserted – perfect.

This is not an area I had ever really heard of before but it is certainly an area I would recommend and like to revisit.

Seacliff Bay – the best til last?…..

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After a showery and breezy night, there followed a showery and breezy day! It appears Autumn is here! Today we parked up in a lay-by just beyond Tantallon Castle (parking down at the beach is £3) and walked the mile or so down the lane to the beach with a pretty good view of the castle and Bass Rock.And wow! Our first glimpse did not disappoint.

Can you believe the whole beach was absolutely empty? Hardly a footstep in sight – this really is a beautiful beach.

A little old lighthouse on some rocks offshore just adds to the seascape and Poppydog is as free as a bird.

Look at Bass Rock – it’s a bit like Ailsa Craig was to us on the west coast – an important part of the seascape.

Tantallon Castle presenting a dramatically rugged skyline.

From the west end of the beach we clambered over the rocks for a bit to get a closer look at Tantallon Castle.

At the east end of the beach a thin strip of soft sand continued on around the corner, as did we.

As we reached the end of the sand and the rocks made it impossible to go on any further we turned about and…..

Oh yes a right proper Scottish shower was coming our way – was there anywhere to hide? No!

Aah well there are worse places to get a soaking and at least with the wind that has whipped up the shower soon passed us by and the wind dryed us out fairly quickly! The beauty of nature.

On the way back up to the car we found St Baldred’s Cave – mmm that would have been handy half an hour ago!

An absolutely stunning beach and a lovely 4 mile walk.

Two thoughts of the day:

This is one of the last beaches we shall see in Scotland this time around – have we saved the best til last?

At least on the coast you can invariably see the weather coming, can’t necessarily do anything about it but se la vie!

Canty Bay to Tantallon Castle….

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At last the wind seems to have moved on, for a while at least, though unfortunately the rain came in mid afternoon catching us mid walk! Today we parked up east of North Berwick at the Drift cafe, a quirky cliff top cafe perched on a headland between Horseshoe and Canty Bay, with fabulous views of Bass Rock – maybe we shall pop in for a cup of tea on the way back, as this cafe comes highly recommended.

For now though we attempt to scramble down a rough path towards Canty Bay. This path turns out to be a bluff and soon makes it’s way back up the cliff to the access road for the few properties lucky enough to be sat on Canty Bay.

From above we can see that the beach is deserted and so I can let Poppydog loose rather than have her drag me all the way down – she can certainly sniff out a beach now from quite a distance!

What a lovely little cove, with a fairly coarse orangey sand that seems to be typical from North Berwick’s East Beach down to Peffy Sands and with mosfly rocky outcrops and pools revealed at low tide on the seaward side if the beach. Even better it is ours for the taking so we do!

After a bit of a play we venture on around the corner where the beach becomes mostly rock and stones with what looks like a little used footpath up the grassy bank to the cliff top and no obvious way around the shoreline. Just to enhance the occasion it starts to rain!

We scramble the 100m or so up the bank and are met with a stone wall leading into a recently combined field – ok now what? Somebody has already removed one of the key stones and Poppydog is easily up and over, so in a much less graceful manner I follow suit! The path ( which may even just be a rabbit run) follows the edge of the field inland, with a pretty impressive view of Tantallon Castle on the way.

Continuing on our way, the ‘path’ brings us out, without further ado past the farm onto the main road. Now we are getting seriously wet, but as we are only a stones throw away from the main entrance to Tantallon Castle we stick with it to see if there is access to the shoreline from the Castle – there isn’t! Instead we make our soggy way back to the car to complete this shortened walk and head for home. A quick glimpse down at the beautiful Horseshoe Bay we so enjoyed yesterday.

Only 3.5 miles but another wonderful beach so who is complaining?

Two thoughts of the day:

We’re all caught up again blogwise which is quite a relief.

Only one more beach to discover and our last in Scotland for the time being – we shall very much look forward to returning and exploring the rest.