The often unloved Edinburgh circumnavigation had a Covid revival event on Sunday with a clockwise mtb outing. We had some valuable new road-avoiding adjustments proposed by Andy. The weather was Autumn benign with hardly any wind, no rain and even brief sunshine to mark our successful completion after about six hours of entertainment. A mixed team (six) of old lags and new blood (the latter reducing our average age dramatically) was small enough to be manageable, just. A clockwise strategy received approval because the Pentlands section could be tackled fresh rather than ragged at the end.
The clockwise crossing of White Hill made it more rideable for all, apart from brief sections of the steep gravelly descent. Andy’s Torduff to Water of Leith variation was excellent, followed by the Donkey Brae variation to Heriot Watt campus. Instead of the Fred Goodwin Memorial museum route we ducked under the city bypass via the canal towpath and Gogar Burn culvert to join the utopian landscape of the Gyle business park. The link through to the airport perimeter fence now uses the new A8 underpass, spitting you out at the vast Morrisons supermarket, the tram depot and the Gateway interchange.
From the airport perimeter fence we were back in the (relative) countryside. The sneak route through the old waste dump is getting increasingly elusive, involving a locked gate bypass and an overspilling woodchip pile almost blocking up the connection to the sylvan enclave of the Cammo Estate. The labyrinth of estate paths led to the almost total dispersal of the team, with a lot of shouting securing eventual re-assembly before hitting the tightly tapering passage between houses to put us on the River Almond walkway. Apart from the newly reconstructed steel staircase up and over the crag we had a fast passage down to Cramond waterfront, where most of Edinburgh seemed to be out for a day in the fresh air. We enjoyed an al-fresco lunch break at the sea wall, but no coffee, to Gio’s increasing distress.
Portobello prom had Gio resuming his now frantic search for coffee, taking us off the prom to the high street, having overshot all the cafes and failing, again. We ducked into Newhailes woods at the Brunstane Burn. At Newhailes House, Gio found a kiosk with coffee and insisted we all join him to celebrate. The cycle path to QMU campus leads under the city bypass to the popular fly-tipping area on the approach to the old Monktonhall colliery wastelands. As we emerged from the underpass tunnel, there was a bright flash and a booming voice said we had been photographed and the police would be alerted immediately. The Dalek instrument on a pole was surprisingly undamaged by the culprits it was intended for. We continued through the confusing new Shawfair estate to link up with the railway cycle path bypassing Drum House. At one of the tunnels a group of Banksy apprentices were hard at work on an impressive new piece of tunnel art.
The railway path delivers you to Straiton shopping area. A short road link across the city bypass connects to the Broomhills Farm track, with a fair amount of mud but little traffic back to the Steading. An always fascinating tour of Edinburgh’s psychogeography. The complexities of this route need very careful attention to detail that defies any maps.
Team, Rachel, Martha, Jonathan W, Gio, Andy S, Keith
Keith Burns