the ubiquitous blog

The wind was in the west and gusting. We wanted to do out for a ride, but didn’t fancy cycling into the wind and fighting against it for half the ride, so we took a train to Bathgate. Now before you get the idea that this was just a soft option, it was not, we decided to go via Cairnpapple in the Bathgate Hills. We had hardly left the station when we started up a 16% hill, but the sun was shining and for the most part we were cycling through a tunnel of trees which gave shelter from the wind.

The first top we reached was The Knock (Knock is a Gaelic word meaning hill) which affords fine views all around. Local rumour has it that this was the site of a coven of witches up until the 17th century. A little to the north you look down on a ring of stones in field which looks like an ancient henge, however it only dates back to 1998 as a birthday present to the farmer from his son. There was apparently an ancient standing stone somewhere near here, the Clinkin Stane, but this disappeared sometime in the late 19th century, evidently some local farmer felt that it was in the way.

From the Knock it was a quick down then up to get to Cairnpapple, this is a genuinely ancient site (currently managed by Historic Scotland and so expensive to visit), which has been in use since roughly 3500 BC. After a quick visit to the top (we didn’t want to pay to go into the cairn itself), noting the dark clouds in the west, we set off east towards home, which was still bathed in sun shine.

We had to decide a route, we could have gone to Linlithgow and joined the canal and followed it back to Edinburgh, but we have done all that before. So instead, we wound our way north, then eastwards along minor roads aiming towards Kirkliston. On the way, after passing Faucheldean we saw signs to Niddry Castle, which we had seen in the distance from the train (and the canal tow path). We decided to go visit, only to find it is currently covered in scaffolding, oh well another time.

Having arrived in Kirkliston, we had planned to follow the road to, but then saw an off road cycle path and decided to use that instead. We followed it out to South Queen’s Ferry, but missed the turning for Dalmeny an took the long way round the town. Then instead of going up Hawes Brae, we saw signs for NCN 75 and decided to follow that along the coast. This took us through Dalmeny Park and passed Dalmeny House, which is an impressive pile, if you like that sort of thing. Having exited the park we picked up NCN 1 which should have led us all the way home, but the exit from the Roseburn cycle path was closed and we had missed the diversion signs, so we just made our own way across town to get home.

If would like to follow our route there is a map here.

The stats:

• Distance cycled – 53.3 Km
• Time spent riding – 02:33:41
• Max Speed – 54.9 Km/h
• Ave Speed – 20.8 Km/h
• Vertical climb – ca. 430 m

Having successfully picked up the CycleChat Relay Jersey the day before and had a good nights sleep, we rose to a splendidly sunny day. After a hearty breakfast we set off from Coldstream towards Edinburgh, as the weather showed signs of changing with clouds bubbling up and the wind in the east. We jinxed our way along a sequence of side roads to Duns, with a short, sharp hail shower to wake us up; this was pleasant easy cycling. The Scottish Borders are often described as being a cycling paradise (mostly by the Tourist Board) due to the number of quiet wee roads. We were surprised by the number of big houses about, it seemed that everywhere you looked there was a castle here and a mansion there. Ok, so that maybe a wee bit of an exaggeration, but it was obvious there was a lot of old money about.

From Duns we swung East along the A6112, which was quiet for an A road, here again the cycling was easy. After a couple of Km we turned off north onto the B6365 and left the traffic behind. Until this point we had been gently climbing, but the road now turned downhill, which was a wee bit disconcerting as we knew that there was a lot of climbing ahead. Still, there was nothing to do but enjoy the ride, so off we went and sure enough after a couple Km, at Milburn Bridge, the road started to go up again. The hill wasn’t steep but it was long climbing 100m over 2Km. Then another short downhill to Ellemford Bridge, here the road turns and follows the Whiteadder Water up stream. Passing Cranshaws, we lamented the fact that the tea rooms there have closed, as there was no chance for a cake stop before the big climb. At this stage we were climbing but it was gentle easy stuff.

As we approached the dam wall of the Whiteadder Reservoir, we prepared for the short steep climb up the Hungry Snout. This is then followed by a slightly shorter but equally steep drop down the other side. Then there was a gentle pedal along side the Whiteadder Reservoir, contemplating the big climb up to the top of Wanside Rig. Again this wasn’t a steep climb but a long one, gaining 190m in 3.5Km. I had come down it a couple of weeks before reaching a top speed of 69.4Km/h (43 mph in old money) and was fully aware that I wasn’t going to be doing anything like that speed on the way up. Ominously there were dark clouds gathering ahead, we had seen the odd rain shower in the distance, but so far nothing had hit us. So before starting the climb in earnest I stopped and put on a waterproof jacket, then about half way up I had to stop again and take it off again as I getting to hot. As I reached the top, the storm finally burst, throwing rain and hail at us, so there was a scramble to put waterproofs back on again.

The hill conquered, we were back on the road we had come on the way out, and we headed down the hill we had struggled up the day before. This hill is unfinished business and I heard David shout “I’ll be back”, just like the Styrian Quercus. The road being newly wet and there being a sharp bend half way down, no speed records were set. We then headed straight for Gifford, taking in the Danskine dip along the way, this is 17% downhill followed sharply by a 17% uphill, which is much more fun going north. Arriving in Gifford we took the opportunity for a cake stop at “Love Coffee and Food”.

Try as hard as we could, we couldn’t quite manage to finish the chocolate cake (and we did try hard), it was very nice. Talking to the owners of the café, they told us that cyclists were their favourite customers, as they were always the happiest people. David put forward a theory that cyclists, when they reach a cake stop, are on an endorphin high and therefore happier than the average member of the population. Cake stop over we pushed on to Edinburgh following the mixture of wee roads and off road paths we had used on the way out. Then before the parting of ways we had one last photo stop in Holyrood Park to celebrate the arrival of the Relay Jersey in Auld Reekie, the Athens of the North.

A route map of the journey is here.

The stats:

• Distance cycled – 89.9 Km
• Time spent riding – 04:26:48
• Max Speed – 56.0 Km/h
• Ave Speed – 20.2 Km/h
• Vertical climb – ca. 860 m

After a week of watching the weather forecast, the three of us, David, Ulli and myself, set out for the border to pick up the CC Relay Jersey. We had been hoping for blue skies, sunshine and light winds, what we got was partly clear skies with the threat of showers and strengthening winds. The plan was simple, cycle out from Edinburgh over the Lammermuir Hills and down to Coldstream to meet on the bridge over the Tweed to collect the Jersey. The forecast on Saturday morning was showers moving away to the south and 8mph westerly winds gusting to 21mph. This didn’t sound too bad, so we decided to go with the plan.

We headed out of Edinburgh through Holyrood Park along the NCN 1 cycle route, a mixture of off road cycle paths and quiet roads. On the western edge of Whitecraigs, we departed from NCN 1 and headed off across country towards Gifford, where we planned to make a cake stop. As we approached East Saltoun, a car with an amber flashing light came the other way, being chased down by a crowd of roadies.

This turned out to be the Musselburgh RCC British Eagle 62 mile road race, which had just started from East Saltoun.

This early part of the ride was easy going and we were making good progress, so we dodged round Gifford and headed for the Lammermuir Hills without the cake stop. As we climbed above Danskine, we started to notice that the wind was somewhat stronger that we had been led to expect, over 20mph gusting over 40 mph. We stopped for a bite of lunch before tackling the first big climb of the day up Wanside Rig, a mere 17% gradient. Unfortunately on the steepest part of the climb the road turns westerly, straight into the wind, and we were all forced to stop. After a short walk, we were back on the bikes and heading on to the top, where we had to decide whether to carry on with the exposed high route or whether to take the lower sheltered route (which were planning to come back by). We decided to stick with the plan and take the high route, so began a titanic battle with the elements.

The Lammermuir Hills might only be 500 m high, but there is a good reason why they are popular with developers of wind farms, as we were about to find out. As we cycled across the tops, we had to keep to the middle of the road, so as not to be blown off the side in the gusts. After crossing Herd’s Hil, the road drops on a 15% gradient. I set off at speed, half way down I was travelling at over 50 Km/h (>30 mph), but had the disconcerting experience of being hit by a gust of wind which reduced my forward speed to 10 Km/h!

We then had a couple of Km sheltered by the Killpallet Heights before climbing up Duddy Bank, another 17% gradient. Only this time we had the wind behind us, I do love wind assisted climbing, it is like having a giant hand pushing you up the hill. Once on the tops again we at the mercy of the wind, and there were times when I could hear my bike chain rattling in the gusts. The landscape surrounding us was spectacular, it was just a shame that we were too busy trying to stay upright and moving forward to fully appreciate it. Nor were we the only ones to be up there, we did meet a couple of walkers and some other cyclists, but we were the only cyclists to be lugging fully loaded panniers.

Finally we dropped down into Longformacus, the Southern Upland Way crosses through the village and there is a small shelter with a map and leaflets. We stopped to take a look, and as we did so a few drops of rain began to fall. David and Ulli dug out their waterproof trousers, I only had a pair of bibbed longs with me and decided that, as it was only a passing shower, I would wait it out. However, whilst up on the tops I had been so busy fighting the wind that I had failed to notice the dark clouds to the south of us. The rain seemed to be easing off, so we set off south, only to catch up with the rain again. We rode on through the rain, discovering the other thing I had failed to notice from the tops, Hardens Hill. It’s only 320 m high, but that was high enough in steady rain, coming down the other side at a steady 50 Km/h was interesting.

I had to keep pedalling to keep warm, this meant that I lost Ulli and David, but eventually I reached a junction where I had to stop and wait. Fortunately they weren’t too far behind. We pushed on through Duns, which also meant we pushed on further into the rain front. Fortunately the front managed to get away from us a few Km south of Duns, and we mostly dried out again over the remaining 15 undulating Km to Coldstream, with only our shoes still wet.

Having arrived in Coldstream, we booked into our B&B, the very cycle friendly Haymount House. I tried to phone Jez who we had come to meet, only to find I had missed a digit when storing the number in my mobile phone. Fortunately two minutes later he phoned me to say that he and Graham were ready to meet us at the bridge and hand over the relay jersey. This was good, as the whole point of making the journey was to pick up the CycleChat Relay Jersey, which is making it way, slowly, around Britain (and maybe beyond). After a cup of tea, we set off again for the bridge. There, standing mid way over the River Tweed, on the border between Scotland and England, the Jersey was handed over. We then went to the “Welcome to Scotland” sign (there are no Welcome to England signs) for some more photos, agreed to meet Jez for dinner (Graham having pedalled off back towards Newcastle), and returned to the B&B for a long hot bath to sooth the aching muscles, before dinner.

A map of the route can be found here.

The Stats:

• Distance cycled – 86.3 Km
• Time spent riding – 04:35:24
• Max Speed – 55.7 Km/h
• Ave Speed – 18.8 KM/h
• Vertical climb – ca. 930 m

Once more we have been drawn to go a’ cycling in East Lothian, only this time we didn’t take the train. Instead with no particular plan we headed out after lunch into Holyrood Park and down onto the Innocent Railway. The railway was closed in 1968 and is called The Innocent because in its 137 year history no one was killed on it, a great rarity in the age of combustion power transport. It is now a cycle path and is part of National Cycle Route 1.

The path passes south of Duddingston Loch and affords great views of Arthur’s Seat and Samson’s Ribs (a formation of columnar basalt to the south side of Arthur’s Seat), if you stop to look. As this is a popular path, cycling while looking over your shoulder is not recommended. Then on through Craigmillar, an area with a rough reputation, neither of us had ridden the path for some years and we were both surprised to find that there wasn’t a shard of glass to be seen.

The signage has also improved dramatically over the last few years, so the chances of getting lost were fairly low. On reaching Musselburgh Station, we decided to carry on along NCR 1 towards Dalkeith, up until this point the route had been almost entirely off road. From Brunstane to Newcraighall the route weaves its way through a series of housing estates, here again the signage is excellent, although Ulli complained that the leaves on some trees were beginning to cover some signs. At Newcraighall the route goes off road again along a path leading out to the new Queen Margaret’s University [www.qmu.ac.uk/] (just one of Edinburgh’s four universities). The most interesting thing about this path is the solar powered lighting system, hopefully this sort of thing could be more widely used across town.

After passing QMU’s shiny new campus, we carried on through Stoneybank and then along the River Esk, under the Edinburgh bypass and to Whitecraig. It was at Whitecraig where we had our first and only problem with the signs. The route takes you along the main road then, just as you reach the end of the 30mph speed restriction, there is a poorly signed right turn, just where the cars are starting to speed up and overtake, care is required. Here again the NCR 1 goes off road following an old railway line, past an old coal bing, to Dalkeith. Ahead of us we could hear the sound of kids on dirt bikes and quad bikes up on the bing. Past experience had taught us that they often ride their bikes without adult supervision along this section of path, this make it more dangerous than cycling on the road. We decided to skip Dalkeith and head into East Lothian instead.

A quick check of the map showed that the path crossed under a road bridge, where we turned off and joined the minor road which took us towards Cousland. We didn’t bother going into Cousland itself but joined another former railway, now an off road cycle path, which took us to the north of Ormiston and then into Pencaitland. At Pencaitland we picked up the road again, it was noticeable how much easier it was cycling on the tarmac road rather than the softer offroad surface. After another look at the map we decided to head towards Gifford via the villages of West and East Saltoun as we hadn’t taken this road before. This was easy back road riding, beyond East Saltoun we joined the B6355 and with the wind at our backs glided into Gifford where we stopped for ice cream.

Ice cream finished, we set off from Gifford and continued along the B6355, as this was a route we had intended to take the week before, but had been taken off course by a large slow moving group from the ERC. This turned out to be the pleasant back road which we had hoped it to be, and carried towards Danskine. On reaching the 17% gradient sign, I was minded not to repeat the error of the week before, and changed to a low gear long before I reached the bottom of the hill. Being in such a low gear, my legs were spinning wildly to no real purpose, so I stopped pedalling and free wheeled the rest of the way. Having reached the bottom, I shot across the short flat section and started pedalling furiously, expecting the momentum to carry my on up the hill. However I was surprised to find just how rapidly the momentum died away. Having made only a few metres forward I went from pedalling furiously to standing on the pedals cranking over slowly to grind up the hill. Still it was an improvement over the last time. Having reached the top, I stood gasping like a fish out of water until Ulli came to join me. She of course arrived gliding along with swan-like grace, having taken the whole thing at a much more sensible pace.

From Danskine we carried on a short way to the crossroads, where we had a choice of a steep climb up onto the Lammermuirs (which had done before) or turning off and looping back to Gifford, either via Carfrae or Longyester. We choose the latter, turning down a pleasantly winding road which, after we missed the turning to Longyester itself, took us across the Castle Park Golf Course. The road led us back to the B6355 just west of Gifford at which point we reversed our route back to Edinburgh. We were now cycling into the prevailing wind, and decided to use the off road cycle path from Pencaitland, thinking that this would be easier cycling, as it was more sheltered. However, we found the increased rolling resistance of the loose surface rather harder work than expected and were greatly relieved to get back onto tarmac. The only other change from our outbound route was outside of Whitecraig, where instead of dropping down onto the cycle path and going round to the east, we followed the minor road to the end and turned right on to the A6094 for about 500m. This turned out to be the least pleasant 500m of the day, due to the bad manners of a few drivers. But I wasn’t going to let such things spoil a good ride, there are always going to be a few idiots out there who drive like they found their licence in a cornflake packet, strange how so many of them drive BMWs though.

If you would like to follow this route, there is a map here, the stats for the day for anyone who is interested are:

• Distance cycled – 80.33Km
• Time spent riding – 03:54:13
• Max Speed – 55.3Km/h
• Ave Speed – 20.57Km/h