East Lothian

I met Linda for lunch on Friday.  Her car was in the garage for an MoT so I picked her up in Edinburgh and we headed out to East Lothian. 

I love the manyEast Lothian houses with their red  pantile roofs, and had to stop in the village of Drem to take photos of some pretty corners.

 

 

These cottages were all looking onto the village green,

 

 

while these were tucked away around the corner.  It’s such an attractive village.

Not much further on is Dirleton where we had lunch at the Castle Inn at the top of the village – in the dining room where Mandy and Richard were married towards the end of last year. The inn takes its name from the ancient castle on the other side of the road.  You can see a turret in the outer wall on the left of the photo.  Turning to my left from where I was standing, the castle itself stands on a mound behind the wall.   The crocuses have taken a bit of a bashing from the wind, all leaning downhill.

Next stop was North Berwick on the coast, and a view of some of the islands of the Forth estuary – the Firth of Forth. 

 

First though we took a close up look at the sea and the renowned Seabird Centre.  Pity we didn’t have time to go in. It has CCTV cameras on the Bass Rock that relay amazing views of the huge colony of gannets on the island, back to the centre.

  I’ve never seen the tide so high at North Berwick.  When I was a child my sister and I often came with our parents to the beaches here, and there are lots of memories, but such high tides are not among them!  Maybe I’ve just never been there at the right time before.

It was a nice drive along the sea front, past big houses that I am guessing were once guest houses for holiday makers from the likes of Edinburgh in the 19th century.  All are private homes now, with perhaps the odd self-catering holiday house here and there.   The road passes the mound where North

 

 

 

Berwick’s ancient  castle once stood, and ends at the golf course where the view back to town is wonderful.  From Berwick Law to the islands in the Forth and round to the Bass way off to the right, these are the relics of a prehistoric volcanic area. 

Too soon it was time to head back to Edinburgh, but it had been so good being down by the sea, even if for just a short time.

Talk again soon.