Social events, runs & activities
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Past…
Holyrood by Headtorch – Wed 13th March
The idea of a night race/run came to me having grown up orienteering where night races are common through the winter months. However, from a running perspective a quick google confirmed that there are very few races run at night and I thought it would be fun to give it a go and organise. In Sweden there are “Reflexbanas”; courses marked out through the terrain with only reflectors to guide the way. I decided this was what I would aim for and thought Arthurs Seat was a suitable and safe location to try it out.
As the clock change was fast approaching there wasn’t much time to get myself organised. Luckily the club already had a supply of flags with pieces of reflective tape attached and so once I’d decided on a course I was good to go.
By 7pm the flags were all in place, darkness had descended all that was needed now was the runners. I was slightly worried the bitter wind would deter most people but by the time 7.15pm came around 30 runners had either already set off or were to go in the mass start. I didn’t tell runners what the route was and so it was down to them following the reflective tapes to stay on track. During my briefing it transpired that the reflective tape was not as bright as I had imagined but at the stage there was nothing to do other than hope I’d put the flags close enough together; they looked fine in the light!
Off they went and much to my relief I started to see headtorches on the right course and before too long we had the first finishers. I’d been worried that Whinny would be the most difficult to keep people on the right track but in the end I think almost everyone got “lost” on Dunsapie. Apparently I confused everyone by not taking them to the top…
Overall, there were lots of positive comments and people seemed to enjoy doing something a bit different at night. Thanks to all who came along and those who helped to collect flags in afterwards.
Pippa Dakin
Carnethy Cadrona weekend away
A 20+ strong group of Carnethies headed off to the Borders for a weekend at the very swish new Kalzie bunkhouse near Cadrona. Despite the forecast we enjoyed pretty decent weather, with an early start on Saturday meaning most of us got our hills in before the worst of Storm Kathleen.
On Friday evening some opted to go mountain biking at Glentress while most of us helped Lucy walk her dogs in Cadrona forest. This was followed by a hearty meal then much cross checking of maps and weather forecasts to plan the next day’s activities. Saturday saw various running groups setting off for the Glensax hills behind Cadrona, one group did the full Glensax horseshoe (apparently not as boggy as feared), one followed some of the two Breweries route and I took the run/walkers up to Birkscairn Hill via an “interesting” diversion due to a slight navigational hiccup, then down Gypsy Glen to the lovely Chocolate Cafe in Peebles before taking the cycle path back along a very full River Tweed. There were also hikers and mountain bikers out and about. I gather that there was a bit of tactical trespassing, in keeping with a proper Carnethy outing. We all returned to the Lodge muddy, windswept and happy to exchange stories and eat cake.
The cooks excelled themselves again on Saturday with another superb meal then on Sunday a group went mountain biking and most of the runners headed to Traquair for a blowy run up the Southern Upland Way via the Minch Moor. Excitement was provided by having to climb over lots of fallen trees, trying (and failing) to stay upright on some very muddy trails and a lovely flowing downhill mountain bike track.
Apologies for the whatsapp communication fails that saw Lucy get left behind on Saturday and Steph & Ken C suffer a similar fate on Sunday. Apart from that things seemed to go pretty smoothly and as far as I know we didn’t leave anyone stuck in a bog on a hillside somewhere. Thanks to everyone for mucking in with all the cooking, washing up etc and organising themselves into activity groups with minimal fuss, I am proud of you all!
Nicola Dunn
March 2024 Slow Social Pentlands Run
Another lovely Sunday run. Earlier this week I thought it might just be me. But in the end there were twelve of us enjoying the sun and Jeff’s Bailey’s Fudge at the top of Allermuir. On the way back down the sun was actually warming my bare arms. Could this be Spring? Come out on April 28th and see
Photos: Pete Cain
The Sunday Slow Pentlands run is usually the last Sunday of the month (unless I am away then it moves around a bit). Details are sent out via club email and Facebook. When I say slow I mean walking up hills and regularly re-grouping so no one is left behind. This run is for people who may be new to hill running and/or feel they aren’t ready to do a full-on club run. Or anyone else who wants to enjoy a socially paced run in the Pentlands. Come out and see that you are ready to join in on a club run.
Sean Walker
Club wedding!
Race to the bar!
It was a united show on Saturday in Traquair at the wedding celebration of Carnethy Club members Magi Hunter and Gregor Heron. Members Lucy and Russel Colquhoun and Sandra and Richard Cromie were flying the Carnethy flag, but there was a strong showing from Tinto Hill Runners as Gregor is an occasional trainee. However, apart from the initial race to the bar, all club rivalry was put aside for a great night of dancing and celebrating.
Thank you so much for all your kind wishes
Magi & Gregor Heron
New Congregations – A night run around repurposed churches
Wednesday night saw the latest night run, and the latest of my themed urban runs over recent years (see Graveyard Shift, Train in Vain, Testaments Old & New and Plaque Attack as examples).
This run took in church buildings around central Edinburgh of differing Christian faiths, and one site that used to occupy a church but has been replaced with another building. There are a variety of factors which may bring about the redundancy of a church. Each building will have its own particular set of causes.
It is important to recognise that unwanted and redundant buildings are not a new phenomenon. Change in our built environment is a natural process; however, the rate of redundancy of church buildings in the last three decades has been unprecedented. According to a Council of Europe assessment, Scotland is one of the countries in which the problem of redundant churches is most severe. The Church of Scotland owns approximately 70% of ecclesiastical buildings. Between 1978 and 1991, 148 churches were sold by the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland alone i.e. an average of 12 per annum, or one a month.
Run here: https://www.strava.com/activities/10810311301
Thanks to Philippa Ivison and Peter Buchanan for the photos.
Mike Lynch
Pizza Express, Nile Grove
The Morningside branch of this popular pizza chain is housed inside a former place of worship, Braid Church. Formerly under the ownership of the Church of Scotland, Braid Church (built for the United Presbyterian congregation) is a Category B Listed structure that was designed by George Washington Browne in 1886. As it’s a Category B listed building, many of the original features from the church remain. The pizza ovens are located where the stage used to be, and the impressive pipe organ is still visible on the wall above. Braid Church replaced an iron church of 1883 (on the corner of Braid Road and Comiston Road) as the congregation outgrew its capacity. The present church was commissioned in 1886 and built in under a year for $5500. Part of the church halls and the organ chamber date from 1989 and 1911. The plan form of the church recalls an Italian baptistery and in 1893 the church was decorated with extensive marbling continuing this theme, but only the columns in the vestibule have survived in this form. It opened as Pizza Express in 2013. One of Morningside’s most famous fictional figures, Miss Jean Brodie, has left her mark, with the restaurant’s walls being decorated with murals inspired by the famous character, including some of her best quotes.
Newington Library, Fountainhall Road
The congregation which built their new church in Fountainhall Road in 1897 had begun in the 2,000-seat Bethel Chapel in the High Street in 1828, and moved to the Cowgate (in the building that is now St Patrick’s RC Church), before the restrictions of that site set the congregation to move to the developing suburb of the Grange. In 1958, the congregation united with the neighbouring congregation of North Mayfield. The building was demolished and the Newington library was built on the site. The former church is commemorated by a bench in front of the library and by donated benches in the garden of the library in memory of a former member of the church.
Lt Allan Ker, VC, Findhorn Place
This wasn’t a repurposed church stop, but in between two, we stopped to reflect on Allan Ker. He was born in Edinburgh on 5 March 1883 the son of Robert Darling Ker WS and his wife Johanna Johnston. He was educated at Edinburgh Academy and then studied law at the University of Edinburgh. Before the First World War he had his own legal practice at 5 George Street and was living at “St Abbs”, a villa on Russell Place in Trinity. He was 35 years old, and a lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders, when he won the VC for holding off 500 enemy for 3 hours, with a single Vickers gun, some men and a few revolvers. He was, however, captured in the event and spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner of war only being released in December 1918, a few weeks after the armistice of 11 November 1918. He was gazetted for the VC on 4 September 1919 and was presented the medal personally by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 26 November 1919. On 11 November 1920 he was one of the 100 VC winners chosen as the guard of honour, escorting the gun carriage to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey. He later achieved the rank of major. He was demobbed in 1922 and went back to practising law, but in London rather than Edinburgh. He died at New Garden Hospital in Hampstead, North London, on 12 September 1958 aged 75. He is buried in West Hampstead Cemetery but was also memorialised in 2018 on his parents restored grave in Grange Cemetery in south Edinburgh.
Cotterell & Co Lighting/Morningside Dance Academy, Grange Road/Causewayside
This building on the corner of Grange Road and Causewayside was erected in 1863 as a United Presbyterian Church, with seats for 1000. It was the product of several unions and enjoyed almost 100 years of congregational life. One of the uniting churches was Hope Park Church, originally Potterrow, built in 1793 as an Antiburgher congregation. By 1867 a new church was built at the corner of Hope Park and Causewayside. In 1848 Duncan Street Baptist Chapel was bought as a meeting place for the congregation known as Newington South which moved again in 1863 when the new church was built in Grange Road. In 1873 a substantial number of members were lost over the question of the use of fermented wine at communion. The dissenters left and were in part linked to the establishment of the Argyle Place Church. In 1940 when the Hope Park and Newington South congregations united, the Hope Park buildings were sold and the Royal Dick Veterinary College was built in its place. The name of the congregation changed again for the final time in 1959, to Salisbury Church.
The Queen’s Hall, Clerk Street
The Queen’s Hall has been a popular performance venue since 1979, but it started life as Hope Park Chapel in 1824. It was renamed Newington Parish Church in 1834 and became Newington and St Leonard’s Parish Church in 1932, when a large new hall was built at the rear of the church. Depopulation of the area led to a decline in numbers and the church was dissolved in 1976. The building was bought by the Scottish Philharmonic Society and converted to a performance venue. It was officially opened in 1979 by Queen Elizabeth II, after whom it is named..
National e-Science Centre and e-Science Institute, University of Edinburgh, South College Street
The former South College Street United Presbyterian Church was built in 1856 to the designs of Patrick Wilson in Renaissance style. Only the impressive façade indicates the former church building’s presence. It was used as a store for many years, before the Category B listed building was skilfully converted by architects Reiach & Hall in 1996 to provide a training and conference centre for the University of Edinburgh. The building now functions as the National e-Science Centre and is home to the e-Science Institute. The centre houses several rooms and open plan areas that can accommodate a variety of activities including conferences, meetings and office workspace. On four levels, the uppermost level contains a top-lit lecture theatre which seats just over 100. Below, a flexible open-plan exhibition area is also used for catering, receptions and demonstrations. In many instances, the insertion of the new floors brings the visitors up close to the original detail of the building.
Bedlam Theatre, Bristo Place
Bedlam Theatre’s building in Bristo Place started life as the New North Free Church in 1848. The church was known for its ministry to students, and after the congregation united with nearby Greyfriars Kirk in 1941, the building became a chaplaincy centre and then a store for Edinburgh University. But in 1980 the student-run Edinburgh University Theatre Company reopened it as Bedlam Theatre and it is now a busy Fringe venue. There was an extensive renovation of the building in 2012. Utilised today by the theatre society of the University of Edinburgh, the Bedlam Theatre takes its name from the former asylum and poorhouse which used to stand on this site, at the southern end of George IV Bridge in the Old Town. The original building was designed by Thomas Hamilton, although it was never popular with the congregation it served, who considered the building ugly and ill-suited to its purpose as a church.
Frankenstein Pub, George IV Bridge
Frankenstein advertises itself as “the original horror pub”, and was originally built in 1859 as Martyr’s Free Church for the Reformed Presbyterian Congregation (later United Free and then Elim Pentecostal). Martyrs’ Reformed Presbyterian Church was formed from a congregation which was originally drawn from Pentland and Loanhead, where it traced descent from a 17th-century Covenanting community. From 1792 it was based in Loanhead, and in 1804 William Goold was called to the charge. In 1818 the Edinburgh members were disjoined and became a separate congregation, with Goold as minister. Their church was at first in Lady Lawson’s Wynd (built 1781), later at George IV Bridge (opened 1861). It adhered to the Free Church at the union of 1876 and to the United Free Church in 1900. In 1909 it united with St John’s as Martyrs and St John’s, but was dissolved in 1930. Much later, the gothic building was home to Edinburgh’s Elim Pentecostal Church, which later moved to Morningside. The building was converted to a pub in 1999.
The Hub, Royal Mile
The Hub – a public arts venue and official home of the Edinburgh International Festival – dates back to 1842-45, when it was built to house the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. It was also the home of the Kirk’s Tolbooth congregation, which later united with two others to become the Highland Tolbooth St John’s Church. Augustus Pugin (designer of the Palace of Westminster) helped design the building in the Gothic Revival Style, whose 245ft Gothic spire is the tallest in the Capital and the highest point in central Edinburgh. The General Assembly met in the lower hall of the church until 1929, when the Church of Scotland reunited with the United Free Church of Scotland, and the amalgamated church decided to use the former United Free Church’s General Assembly Hall on The Mound for future assemblies. After 1929 the building was used by various congregations as a place of worship, although it was never actually consecrated as a Church. In 1956 it was named the Highland Tolbooth St John’s Church. The congregation had been notable for holding services in Gaelic as well as English. In 1979 the Tolbooth congregation united with the nearby Greyfriars Kirk and the building was closed. The Hub was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999. As well as hosting performances, it is the Festival’s central ticket office and information centre.
Prior to the completion of the new Scottish Parliament Building at Holyrood in 2004, the Hub was occasionally used for meetings of the Scottish Parliament when the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly Hall was unavailable. The Parliament returned to the Hub for two weeks following the collapse of a beam in its debating chamber on 2 March 2006.
Crisis Scotland, Canongate/Cranston Street
The Canongate Christian Institute, built in 1878, was a Christian mission, where weekly services and gospel meetings were held for residents of the Old Town. It closed in 1930. The Institute and Mission Hall extend along the north end of the slightly earlier former church, the Canongate United Presbyterian Church alongside (built in 1869) and this was converted around 1990 into the Hawthorn School of English, then it became The Edinburgh School of English, teaching English as a second language to many short-stay visitors from abroad. The building is located on Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile and was listed by Historic Scotland in 2003 specifically for its value to the streetscape. The courtyard garden, enclosed by low sandstone walls and cast-iron railing to Canongate and Cranston Street, provides a green space with a mature tree and low planting in an otherwise hard urban environment. It’s now home to homeless charity Crisis.
The Glasshouse Hotel, Greenside Place
Formerly Lady Glenorchy’s Low Calton Church dating from the 1840s, this former church adjacent to the Playhouse theatre (itself on the site of a long-lost Baptist meeting house) was demolished during the renovation of the whole Greenside area in the 1960s and 70s. Part of the conditions for its demolition stipulated that the façade of the building be preserved, and for many years (within living memory) it was propped up with steel scaffolding supports while the area around it was completely revitalised. Today the original church frontage is incorporated into the glass and steel structure that houses the Omni cinema and a whole host of bars and restaurants, and accessed through the façade itself is the Glasshouse hotel, popular for its roof garden and rear views up to Calton Hill.
Lyon & Turnbull Ltd, Broughton Place
The former Broughton Place Church was built for the Rev. James Hall’s newly formed United Associate Synod congregation; construction began in May 1820 and the church opened for its first service in May 1821. However, it later became better known as Dr John Brown’s Chapel, after its second minister. A plan and elevation signed by Elliot shows that he originally intended the building to have a tower and spire, but, perhaps for financial reasons, these were never built. The ceiling rose in the auditorium originally held a large octagonal gasolier, which was removed in 1853. Broughton Place Church featured in the 1981 multi-Oscar winning film Chariots of Fire as ‘Church of Scotland, Paris’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjF59VB0h6g The Broughton McDonald congregation left in 1991 and most of the interior furnishings were dispersed; the organ and organ screen were relocated to a church in Italy. The church was added to the Buildings at Risk Register in 1992 when the congregation relocated. Sold by the Church of Scotland in 1993, the building went through a period of varied intermittent use before auctioneers, Lyon & Turnbull, moved here in 1999. A new use secured, the subsequent conversion by Malcolm Fraser Architects was completed in 2003.
Ingleby Gallery, Barony Street
Edinburgh’s former Glasite Meeting House in Barony Street was built in 1835 as a Christian place of worship and is now an art gallery. The Glasites were founded in 1730 by Fife-born minister John Glas – they had no clergy, no consecrated churches and they held large communal meals known as love feasts. It had no windows, just a large cupola to let in light. After worship the congregation gathered in the Feast Room for lunch (the feast table is original), and the typical fare gave it the nickname of the Kale Kirk. The Scottish Historic Buildings Trust (SHBT) took on the building in 1989 after the six remaining members of the congregation decided they could not carry on. After repairs, the meeting house was sold to the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland for use as their national office. In 2018, the building changed again to become the new home of Ingleby Gallery.
Assay Office, Albany Street
The Albany Street Chapel, opened in 1816, was built for a congregation of Independents. This movement, sometimes called Separatists, was begun in the 16th century by congregations who wished to separate from the Church of England and form independent local churches. They were influential politically in England during the time of the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell, who was, himself, a Separatist. Subsequently, they survived repression and gradually became an important religious minority. One group left England for Holland in 1608, and in 1620 some of them, the Pilgrims, settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts. A fundamental belief was the idea of the gathered church; that Christians of the same belief should combine to follow their agreed beliefs, in contrast to the territorial basis of the established church. This belief became a principal tenet of Congregationalism. The Chapel, which became called the Albany Street Congregational Church, closed around 1975. It is now the Edinburgh Assay Office. The Edinburgh Assay Office is the last remaining Assay Office in Scotland and one of four which remain in the United Kingdom. The history of hallmarking at the Edinburgh Assay Office can be traced back to 1457 when the first hallmarking act of Scotland was created. It is an independent privately run business, owned by the Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh. From 1457, the Deacon, or leader of the craft, assayed and marked the members’ wares, but in 1681 a separate Assay Master was appointed to oversee this task. The first Assay Master was John Borthwick. The Incorporation’s importance in the life of the city and country was confirmed in 1687 when King James VII granted it a Royal Charter.
Genting Casino, York Place
The building as St George’s Episcopal Chapel, was built in 1792 under the direction of James Adam. 1792 was one year after the penal laws against Episcopalians had been rescinded. This chapel adopted a “Gothic” style which was unusual in Edinburgh for the era and in fact it was Adam’s only excursion into the “Gothic” style, although Hermitage of Braid House has much in common as to suggest that he was responsible for it also. From 1810 to 1826 Walter Scott rented a pew in the north gallery. The chapel closed in 1932 and though the building’s front was updated in 1934, most of the original foundation and brickwork remains the same. It became a warehouse for many years afterwards. The exact date where the casino went into operation is unknown, though the Genting Group itself dates back to 1965.
Bannatyne’s Gym, Queen Street
Originally built as a house and was converted to a gothic style church in 1851 called St Luke’s Free Church. Latterly Queen Street Church was then formed by the union in 1891 of Tollbooth Free Church and St Luke’s Free Church to form Queen Street Free Church, which became Queen Street United Free Church in 1900 (at the union of the Free Church and the United Presbyterians) and then Queen Street Church after the 1929 union of the United Free Church and Church of Scotland. It now houses a Bannatyne’s Gym.
West Register House, Charlotte Square
West Register House was built as St George’s Church in 1811-14 to serve as the Church of Scotland parish church for the western part of the New Town. The church took its name from the original square, intended to be St George Square (to mirror St Andrew Square at the east end of the city) and was initially designed by the architect Robert Adam. Adam’s plans were modified by Robert Reid, including the installation of a stunning dome modelled on St Paul’s Cathedral in London. During its three years of construction, the cost of the building nearly doubled from £18,000 to £33,000. Its green copper dome is a prominent feature of the Edinburgh skyline. In 1960 an appeal was launched for structural work required to support the dome, but then extensive dry rot was discovered. And in 1964 the congregation united with St Andrew’s Church in George Street to form St Andrew’s and St George’s. The building was bought by the Scottish Records Office and converted to a public record office, which meant gutting the interior and installing five storeys along with a two-storey entrance hall.
Ghillie Dhu, Rutland Place
Ghillie Dhu is a popular bar, restaurant and live music venue. It was built as St. Thomas’ Church in 1843 for a breakaway congregation from the Scottish Episcopal Church which allied itself with the Church of England. It was shown on the 1876 OS map as having “seats for 750”, it was rebuilt in 1882, when the seating was reduced to 625 (1893 OS Map). The church congregation moved to Corstorphine in 1938 and the Rutland Place building was eventually converted in 1958 to serve for a time as a heritage centre, a tourist information centre and then the Berkeley Casino before being remodelled for its current use and opening as Ghillie Dhu in 2010.
Edinburgh Filmhouse, Lothian Road
Dating from the 1830s, this former church building on Lothian Road was converted into a cinema in the late 1970s, and until recently was home to the annual Edinburgh International Film Festival, as well as hosting a variety of arthouse and blockbuster screenings all year round. The building that housed the Filmhouse was erected in 1831 as United Presbyterian Church (later United Free Church), designed by the architect David Bryce in a Neoclassical villa style. It later became St. Thomas’s Church of Scotland
The cinema began life when, in 1979, the disused St. Thomas Church building was converted into a 100-seat auditorium (later cinema 2) accessed via a side entrance on Morrison Street Lane. The front of the building was listed and remained inaccessible until in 1985 when a new 280 seat auditorium and bar were added and the front entrance opened. The cinema closed in October 2022 when its parent body went into administration. As of September 2023, a campaign organised by former staff is underway to reopen it.
Church Hill Theatre, Morningside Road
Hippolyte Blanc, who designed the building, was a prolific architect and antiquarian. He was involved in high-profile restoration projects across Edinburgh – including the Argyle Tower and portcullis gate at Edinburgh Castle and John Knox House on the Royal Mile. His major works are dominated by churches in the gothic revival style, and examples can be seen all over Scotland. In Morningside alone they include Christ Church, Chalmers Free Church and Morningside Parish Church. So who better to design Morningside High Church, as this building originally was? The pink sandstone building was completed in 1892, and served the parish for almost 70 years before it was united with Morningside Parish Church and the building was vacated. It lay largely unused until the Little Theatre in the Pleasance closed in the early 1960s, when the idea was raised to turn the building into a new, smaller-scale theatrical venue. In 1962, the Corporation of the City of Edinburgh discussed the creation of a venue that would encourage the younger generation into the fields of ballet, drama, music and opera – and in 1963 it bought the former church building as a base. The theatre formally opened on 25 September 1965 with a production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. The Theatre became a mainstay for local and amateur performing arts groups across the city. It is also a key venue for national and international companies and well known performers like the June Geissler School of Ballet, the Wooster Group, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, 7:84 and TAG. It established a long-running association with the American High School Theatre Festival in 1995, and in 1996 artist Kenny Munro was commissioned to create The Milestones in collaboration with local school children. Those two pillars, located in the Theatre’s driveway, celebrate the heritage of Morningside and its neighbouring areas with symbols and motifs of their social and civic history.
Final Slow Pentlands Run of 2023
What better way to end the year than a sunny social run through the Pentland hills. When I decided to do one last run on December 31 I wasn’t sure if anyone would bother turning up. As I had arrived back from a brief Christmas visit to Toronto barely 24 hours before the meeting time I wasn’t sure I wanted to show up. But in the end, we had a great group of 16 hearty Carnethies (+1 dog). We even managed to pick up one person along the way. As usual, the weather was perfect (what is it about Sunday mornings) and the company was even better. After a bumpy start earlier in the year with table booking, I seem to have figured out how to keep the people at Cobbs happy with our ever-changing group sizes. I think most people just come for the food afterwards (which is fine).
Looking forward to 2024!
Photos: Ruth Moss
The Sunday Slow Pentlands run is usually the last Sunday of the month (unless I am away then it moves around a bit). Details are sent out via club email and Facebook. When I say slow I mean walking up hills and regularly re-grouping so no one is left behind. This run is for people who may be new to hill running and/or feel they aren’t ready to do a full-on club run. Or anyone else who wants to enjoy a socially paced run in the Pentlands. Come out and see that you are ready to join in on a club run.
Sean Walker
Solstice run
Post pub run hangovers had abated sufficiently for a good turn out for the solstice run despite an early start.
Unfortunately no virgins were forthcoming and my back up human sacrifice had managed to break her knee cap 2 days ago so couldn’t make it. There were rumours that goats may have been ritually violated instead but I couldn’t possibly comment.
We necked some mulled wine & Yule logs, set up a makeshift altar and made wishes for the next year. On cue a nacreous cloud appeared in the heavens – A SIGN!! Of something…..
It was too windy to linger for long, some druids and acolytes went home but the rest of us continued over another couple of hills but resisted the temptation of a solstice skinny dip in Bonaly reservoir.
Thanks to everyone who came!
Nicola Dunn
Carnethy Christmas party and awards 2023
Wednesday 6 December saw the annual Carnethy Christmas party, this year also serving as the celebrations for the club’s 40th birthday. 100 Carnethies descended on the Counting House, Edinburgh, for a night of revelry and reminiscing about 40 illustrious and elevation-packed years.
Seated around the tables were members representing all the many periods of Carnethy’s history, and the richness of that collective memory was celebrated throughout the night. Whether it was seeing pictures of races (amongst other things!) from years gone by, or memorabilia from the yellow-vest era, newer members like myself got a sense of the club’s history which I didn’t have before. A highlight of the evening was ‘Carnethy through the Years’, where we heard from members from each decade all the way back to the 1980s. A particular thank you to the Spenceleys, Nikki Innes, Gordon Cameron, and Mark Hartree for sharing their experiences and recollections from yesteryear – some wisdom for us young rug-rats.
The Christmas do is also the night for Club awards, where we celebrate the accomplishments – athletic and otherwise – of our ever-growing membership.
This year’s winners were:
Scald Law: John Ryan for his 40 Cairngorm Munros in under 48 hours Challenge
Burns-Scott: Joel Sylvester for feat of perserverance in Skyline organisation during extenuating circumstances and continued work in land access to the Pentlands.
JBF: Hilary Spencely for her win and team win at the Worlds Masters Mountain Running Championship
Radical Runner: John Chambers for completing the 3540km Appalachian Trail
Billy’s Goat: Rachel Normand for an incredible return to running, and several running victories, after having a baby earlier this year
Alt C5: Steph Droop and Iain Whiteside
Junior Trophy: Arielle Muir for her continued enthusiasm for hill running
Handicap Series Trophy: Arielle Muir
Wooden Spoon: Ali Masson and Tim Morgan for accidentally letting a cow eat all their food in their tent while on a running trip in Kyrgyzstan
Trophy winners page here
Wishing all club members a restful festive period with many (hopefully dry) runs,
Neil, Richard, and Colm