North Berwick to Dunbar

North Berwick is a seaside town 25 miles northeast of Edinburgh. It sits beneath a hill, North Berwick Law, which was formed by a volcanic plug and then shaped by time and Ice Age. North Berwick Law stands out in the otherwise flat area and can easily be spotted from as far as the Pentlands or Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh. In fact, I climbed it once with my friend Colin. It looks quite tall from afar, but we were up and down in an hour and spent the rest of the day on the beach. 

I left North Berwick at 10.30 am and followed the well-signed route south, past North Berwick Law. The route desription on walkhighlands.co.uk (click) said that East Linton would make a good stop for lunch. The walking was flat, I saw few people, most of them with dogs. It was quite a long walk to East Linton, maybe 7 miles (10 km), and by the time I got there I was quite hungry.

The pretty town centre had a couple of delis - both closed - but no cafe or tearoom. I passed a co-op supermarket, but I was really after a hot drink and some soup. I started to wonder if the walk description maybe suggested I should have my packed lunch here rather than talking about dining options in East Linton - when I spotted the pub. I had soup and a coffee by an open fire and was more than happy.

I didn’t stay long though, as I wanted to get to Dunbar and the final section on the clifftops before it got too dark for walking on clifftops. Leaving East Linton I walked along a river Tyne (but not the Newcastle one), across field, and when the sun started to set I reached the saltmarshes of the Tyne estuary. Pretty cool, I hadn’t expected any saltmarshes.

Walking through John Muir Country Park I then saw something odd. It started with the Lamas. Then ostriches. Sheep, goats and donkeys. And then a huge castle-like structure with slides and ladders, and a little monorail. One moment in the wilderness, and in the next I find myself in a safari park.

The sun properly set when I just spotted the red cliffs of Dunbar. I skirted the golf course (you are never far a way from a golf course in Scotland), and the sky turned pink, and the cliffs turned too dark to see. I arrived in Dunbar at 4 pm.

Dunbar’s centre was astonishing. The Christmas lights were wild and colourful, but when I looked more closely I saw that they were in fact sponsored by local businesses: “Season’s greetings from all at Torness”, or just the name of the firm with a tree or a star. Odd, but cheerful. 

My train home was very busy but warm, so that was nice. I even caught the connecting train to my local station. But when I got off there, Network Rail or Scotrail or whoever I can blame had done quite a blunder: The road that crosses the rails next to the station was closed for roadworks. However, the pavement alongside this road is the only way to get from platform 1 to platform 2 - and this was also closed. So, only one half of the train station was accessible from each side. People living north of it can only take the trains towards Edinburgh, or coming from Glasgow. Unfortunately, coming from Edinburgh, I was on the wrong side. So after walking 15 miles already and being only an 8 minute walk away from home in theory (I could almost see my house) I had to walk another 2 miles to cross the rails in a different place.