Day 100 Rosehearty to Portsoy

 

 Date: Thursday 31^th May 2012   Distance: 31.16 Miles

 

. We slept OK. Because there was no chance of cooked breakfast till after 9 am we had to make our own. We made sure we had plenty of toast and cereal as there would be miles of up that morning. So- not an ideal start!

 

On a brae outside of Rosehearty and overlooking the North Sea is Mounthooly Doocot. Built in 1800 by Lord Garden when he bought the Pitsligo Estate, it is castellated and its setting makes a grand picnic site. We have seen many dove or pigeon cots on our coast journey and the practise was brought to Britain by the Normans. The young birds were usually eaten, in pies, roasted, in stews and also sometimes the eggs were consumed. The adult birds were usually for rearing. Guano was used for fertiliser, in gunpowder making and tanning. Some doocots were merely follies.

 

In a field overlooking the sea we passed  what looked like a cylindrical log cabin advertised as hobbit luxury camping. We found out later that it cost £35 for 2 people, £40 for 3 and £45 for 4. It looked a novel way to camp with a separate toilet block.

 

Just down the road was a farm with curly horned sheep and many many peacocks displaying all over the place at the females- A photographer’s paradise. The larks had been soaring all morning and we spied a solitary female deer beside the river.

 

Need for refreshment sent us to Gardenstown, down a steep hill to the sea. The town is built on a series of terraces, set in the cliffs of Gamrie Bay. The pub was shut but we could have had a take-away coffee in the little local shop, but there was nowhere to sit. The public loos by the harbour were cordoned off for refit and had been for 3 months, a local said.

 

There was a portaloo, which was excessively smelly and the water had run out for hand-washing, but we begrudgingly used it out of necessity (Thank goodness for anti bacterial gel)  Any facilities in this part of Scotland were so thin on the ground you had to make the most of what there was!

 

We watched a small red boat crammed with 5 young people go out of the harbour with boxes labelled cetaceous research. The possibility of seeing dolphins or other large sea life seems less remote now.

 

It was hard pushing the bike back up to the route we were taking, then up more hills, past a demoralising signpost telling us it was still 10 miles to Macduff when Bob knew it could only be 6. It was gradually down to Macduff where there was a small harbour and busy workshops for the shipping industry- a lot of men in hard hats welding and banging.

 

Lunchtime doesn’t seem a good time for pubs to be open as we find another one with no food- but we were directed to a little cafe up some stairs off the street, with views of the sea and harbour. Harbour cafe was very small but with fast service and tasty fare. When a party of 8 came in from a boat trip we felt we should go to make room for them. If the trip had been shorter we might have been tempted too but it was 3 hours long, and, they didn’t see dolphins!

 

There was a path alongside the harbour which we took to Banff. As we got near to the town we saw there was quite an issue with dog poo. Most places so far have been acceptably clean and there were signs for fines here, obviously ignored. A county town with preserved 17th and 18th century houses, Banff looked like it might be interesting to spend a while. We did consider Duff House but decided it would be expensive for a ”nip in and out” especially when art – not Bob’s cup of tea- is the main attraction. After following signs to the town museum we found it to be only open on a Sunday afternoon. Eyes peeled for dolphins we pressed on with the occasional spot of rain.

 

 

We arrived in Port Soy at 4.20 under blue sky and in sunshine after sea watching from a 6 mile stretch of cycleway. We were to stay in the Station Hotel which we found very friendly with a nice room at the front by the road which was surprisingly busy at all hours.

Before eating we went for a walk around the picturesque 17th century harbour. I looked around the marble shop and bought an onyx dice- not too heavy a gift to take home! Tortsoy marble is worked in one of the warehouses in the harbour that are original and restored.

We had an earlybird meal- 2 courses for £12-salmon mousse and real melba toast, Cullen skink and oat cakes followed by beef and ale pie and egg pineapple and gammon. The food here has a good reputation and we certainly enjoyed it.

 

At 7pm we were going to a short play put on by the local dramatic group- children and adults- a modern naughty take on the fairy tale the 3 little pigs. We were concerned that we might not understand if the local accent was broad. In fact most people we talked to on the whole trip were very easy to understand. Bob won a bottle of wine in the raffle after the performance.

 

Port Soy has a nice community feel to it. There are several different types of shops and I sampled some homemade ice cream from one of them. As we walked around the little manmade Loch Soy, mainly a large duck pond, with my teeth slightly glued together from the unusual ingredient of Turkish delight in my ice, we watched the sugar pink horizon, taking in the Black Isle where we would head tomorrow.

 

The Shore Inn back at the Harbour is a real ale establishment. Bob liked his pint of Orkney beer but I left mine when someone shouted “Dolphins!” and we and others including the barmaid rushed out to see. If they had been there, then they had gone. It was getting dark and we returned to the hotel to sleep till 5 when the traffic, despite double glazing, woke us.

 

 

Day 99 Cruden Bay to Rosehearty

 

 Date: Wednesday 30^th May 2012   Distance: 37.8 Miles

 

I tossed and turned all night and after barely 3 hours sleep we had breakfast at 8am. Bob had smoked haddock and poached egg and I had the proverbial haggis, poached egg and tomato- very nice.

 

We rode out to Slains Castle, built in 1597, on a track that was rugged and looking unlikely. This castle was reputed by some to be the inspiration for Dracula but we thought that was Whitby abbey. It was a fabulous location, not spooky in the morning but full of intact corridors with plenty of places for a vampire ambush. The ruins stand fairly near the edge of the cliff and we were dive bombed by nesting fulmars. Beside the castle is a gorge festooned with primroses. Pink alpines decorate the tops of ruined columns. I wished we could linger but a long day ahead we took the lane parallel to the sea rutted with clay puddles (the clay never washed off and it our bike stayed muddy all week)

 

 

 

Once again we marvelled at the loud bird song. It was a climb up then down into Peterhead which, until 1893, was Britain’s major whaling port. We passed a farm with a whale-bone as an entrance. There was a prison, hospital, power station and school. All schools seemed to have 20 mile speed limits during school start and finish times and they actively encouraged children to cycle. It was a very quiet shopping centre and it seemed really cold. We warmed up in the one cafe we could find.

 

We left Peterhead heading towards blue skies with clouds behind us. Beside the road were fenced in sheep and we could have filled a duvet cover with all the wool rolling around the fields and caught in the wire fences. A lot of the sheep, we noticed later, hadn’t been shorn and they moulted instead.

 

It was half a mile on the main road then through Kinloch with a tiny loch, then St. Fergus. In a cut hayfield we watched a pair of hares, one froze almost beside us. Bob managed a photo despite them “haring off!”

 

There was nowhere to stop till St Combs, where we stopped at the Tufted Duck Hotel. This looked unlikely for a break as it was very smart and modern with marquees going up. The friendly staff were, however, happy to serve us with lunch which came with homemade chilli bread pro gratis. It was getting increasingly hard to find comfort stops.

 

We rode along a speed bumped track by a golf course in the dunes and by large houses looking like corporate lodgings. Then we passed more golf courses and then little streets, with washing drying on the sea side instead of gardens like in Cruden Bay.

 

Fraserburgh was the next place of note. We stopped mainly for the loos, which you had to use when you found them as there just aren’t too many. A little building for the Ladies or Gents was accessed by inserting a 20p in the outside door. A blue light, possibly ultra- violet, lit the inside and we wondered if this was to make up for the lack of sunshine for a lot of the year- A good idea?

We later found this was to prevent drug addicts from seeing veins for injections.

It was too late for the Heritage museum which was to close at 4pm. The tearoom in the Lighthouse museum had already closed and it was much too late also to visit the Kinnaird Head lighthouse that is built into the structure of the 16th century castle, now the museum. We were able to go around the museum itself for £9 between us and I was left feeling ripped off. It was full of old configurations of glass making up the various “lights” We found the films soporific due to the low lighting and indecipherable Scottish words.

 

On the way out of the town we passed a lovely harbour with boats packed fore to aft. The little fishing boats looked chunky and unusual. Waves crashed over the rocks as we rode beside the sea on the cycle path. The light through the waves turned them emerald green.

 

We arrived at the Masons Arms at the fringe of Rosehearty. Up the road we spied a castle ruin and another dove cote.The bike went in the car port. We hoped for a better night sleep. The food was micro-waved here and the worst of the week. There was no competition anywhere. Once a flourishing harbour its fleet is now based at Fraserburgh and the village is quite empty of facilities.

 

We walked up to the ruin, Pitsligo Castle, preserved by a local trust though we did think the “for sale” notice referred to this charming building. Would be a lovely setting for weddings!

 

Comfy beds with sky TV but again late night drinking made an early bed difficult. We had found a basic shop in the village and had bought a few things for breakfast to supplement the bits left for us in the fridge in the guest’s kitchen. You can have cooked breakfast for an extra fee, but the staff don’t start until 9am.

 

 

Day 98 Aberdeen to Cruden Bay

 

 Date: Tuesday 29^th May 2012   Distance: 29.4 Miles

 

Monday 28th May

 

We cycled to Manchester Airport at 4.45 for the 6 o’clock train to Edinburgh. We needn’t have rushed – it was delayed but miraculously recovered most of its 20 minutes between Carlisle and Edinburgh.

 

We seemed to attract chatty people and didn’t get much time to just chill (excitable lady from Germany going to Preston for a holiday? and then another lady who cycled and came from Dundee) We arrived at 10pm as it was getting dark and had the usual nightmare of negotiating the tramline road-works, now all over the city as we cycled to another Premier Inn in the east of the city near the football stadium. We went straight to bed with the bike in the same downstairs room.

 

Tuesday 29th May

 

It was a lovely breakfast then another cycle back through Scotch mist for the 9.30 train to Aberdeen. It was stressful waiting for the platform number to come up on the board but we got there in good time to dismantle the bike only to find the carriage doors all locked despite the staff being on the train. Then it was a mad panic and a lot of rudeness on the part of the guard who thought that tandems, even ones that come apart like ours, should not be allowed on the train. Good job we had booked the bike as 2 bikes!

 

It was a 2 hour journey and again we had a cyclist for company. I saw fins of, possibly, dolphins between Stonehaven and Aberdeen from the window. Aberdeen Station was quiet. There was Italian produce being sold in the attached shopping area and huge ships were in the harbour. As we rode along the quayside we could see a least another 15 waiting out at sea to come into harbour. We passed skyscrapers and a municipal golf course edged by hundreds of rowan saplings in protective coverings.

 

Four miles out of the city we stopped at the Brig o’don pub for lunch. I had been glad of my new ski jacket with thermal lining (we remembered how cold we had been in the damp of August last time we were in Scotland) Yesterday it had been 26 degrees at home but here it was barely 12 with overcast skies and a fresh wind. It is rare for Bob to find something on the menu for sweet but he had a pineapple kebab with yoghurt and I had 2 massive chocolate brownies with ice cream. It was to turn out to be a great holiday for food! We have never seen a pub with television screens at every set of tables. Bob was extolling the cleanliness of the toilets while I complained that the whole basin rocked and I nearly slid off-pointing out that I had only half a shandy! We left laughing and thought them nice friendly people.

 

It was busy on the road over the bridge and on through an industrial area. Then we took a higher route parallel to the A90 with some sea views. Soon the landscape became predominantly yellow from the gorse, broom and rape, cheering up the grey day. Bluebells were still out and wheat seemed stunted in growth. Helicopters continually passed overhead to and from the North Sea oil rigs.

 

We took our lives in our hands to cross the  A90 to go to Newburgh where we stopped at the Udny Arms hotel for refreshments. It was very quiet with heady scents from lilies and carnations left from a wedding. We sat in a comfy lounge and worked out we’d done over half today’s route but the cyclometer was playing up and did so all week.

 

We climbed out of Newburgh and were soon on very quiet roads. The prolific gorse seems a brilliant habitat for birds and since 3 o’clock the only sound is birdsong and the rolling sea. A large nature reserve in the sand dunes and estuary was alive with cormorants, oyster catchers, eider and shell ducks and herons.

 

We liked the varied colours, greys and pinks, of the granite pebbles on the beach. Yellow hammers often crossed our path and lapwings, swallows and larks (the latter singing its heart out all week) dipped and dived over the fields. Even the irrigation channels were full of yellow marsh marigolds. I always think of Scotland in purple from the heather but not anymore.

 

We arrived at Cruden Bay, Kilmarnock Arms where 2 fires were blazing away and we knew it would be cosy. I’d worn gloves for the last 13 miles. The author of Dracula, Bram Stoker was said to have stayed in the hotel in the 1800s. There is a massive whisky list but Bob had brought his own! Mixed grill and seafood thermidor were our chosen meals and we weren’t disappointed. The crème Brule and cheese board were huge and we wondered if appetites are larger in Scotland than anywhere else.

 

 Although it was deemed safe to leave the bike outside overnight they allowed us to put the bike inside by the back stairs. We walked between the houses and their gardens made separate by the road. There is a walk over a little wooden bridge to the beach and dunes. A cordoned off wooden Viking ship, made by a local awaited public burning at sea during a summer festival later in the year.

 

We arrived back to impromptu music in the bar. An American guest had asked if there were any locals who played instruments and a fair few turned up with guitars, bodhran and harmonica. The American mostly sang blue grass and yodelled Texan songs and he was given a lot of floor space. Though he was good we would have preferred to hear more traditional Scottish music. It seemed like they were just there for his benefit. We went to sleep but were woken later by loud music and after several attempts to sleep I thought that enough is enough and the music was directly beneath us so I went down to speak to them just before midnight. They apologised and left! Bars are quite often open till 1am.

 

 

Day 97 Stonehaven to Aberdeen

 

 Date: Sunday 25^th September 2011   Distance: 26.34 Miles

 

 

We were impressed that we could have breakfast served for 8 am. At around 9 we left past the market place which had a car boot sale in progress. It was busy going up the B road as it was used by the traffic from and to the A9. It soon became quieter though as we took to the lanes that were part of the cycle way.

 

We passed Cookney Church which is now a home and a Research Consultancy (RUM) There were hardly any houses. Many of the climbs we did today we could have ridden but we were conserving energy for the many long hauls we would have today.

 

We met 2 cyclists who rode beside us chatting for a while till they left for the inland and shorter route to Aberdeen. We turned right and then deviated from the cycle route to find a road- advertised farm shop where we thought we might get refreshments. We found it a while later- The Devenick Dairy- but we had trouble drawing the attention of the people in the farm who were used to people coming by car and even the dogs didn’t stir from their snooze in the porch. Most of the produce was from the farm like yogurts, cheeses, meat and preserves. We bought some “Coos roost” cheese for later which was very nice and Bob said the yogurt was lovely. It was just a shame that they didn’t do teas or coffee.

 

We went by a Fire and Rescue training area where there was smoke pouring out of a building and men with breathing apparatus were waiting to go in. There were a lot of derelict buildings in this area perhaps also used by the rescue services.

 

At Portlethan, a modern town, we found a Premier Inn that although not properly open it served us with coffee and tea and more importantly we used the cloakrooms!

Out towards Findon we passed another tandem coming down a long hill at a cracking pace with a child on the back, another on a rann trailer and then quite a large child sitting in a baby trailer behind that. At least 2 children would be pedalling when it came to the ups!

 

 Passing by workplaces connected to the oil industry (valves)  we rode alongside the railway line for some way and then down towards Girdle Ness where there were beautiful sea views with 3 ships out at sea and then a 2 light system white lighthouse visible from 25 miles out at sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We turned away from open sea in to Aberdeen with an impressive view of the city with its new buildings crammed in with the old and a funfair right by the estuary. We passed containers ships and little dockside shops with advertising in huge characters of foreign language. We went over the Dee on a short bridge into Aberdeen with a Castle and Cathedral on our right. Turning left we reached the station where there was a huge modern shopping and eating area completely under cover and connected to the platforms. We had Highland Stew then caught the 1.50 train back to Edinburgh enjoying seeing the places we’d cycled through and also those craggy sea shores that we didn’t have access to. We caught the train back to Manchester the next day after covering 190 miles this trip.

Day 96 Ethie Castle to Stonehaven

 

 Date: Saturday 24^th September 2011   Distance: 37.32 Miles

 

We were warm and comfortable and sound from the adjoining room didn’t bother us but I cowardly left a torch on all night and even then couldn’t sleep. This was a very expensive stay at £185 including dinner, wine and Bob’s whisky. It would have been better if we had felt that our host was focussed on looking after her guests. We felt a bit sidelined.

 

Breakfast was English style with an unusual yogurt topped rhubarb starter. We left through the back door into the courtyard with no one to see us off, except for the dogs! We left through the huge iron gates into the lane leading to Lunan.

 

Atop a hill, over-looking Lunan Bay, is a rust coloured ruin called the Red Castle. We passed this and climbed so we could look back on the beautiful long sandy beach backed by dunes while machines in the foreground fields picked potatoes. The sun shone brilliantly. All morning we heard and saw flocks of geese and a stoat slunk across the road in front of us with a lovely red- brown coat and black tip to its tail. The geese seemed to be in separate squadrons, 5 or 6, joining up to form much larger migratory flocks flying south. The Montrose Basin though is a winter reserve for greylag and pink footed geese.

 

There were many wiggly lanes to Montrose where we stopped for refreshments at Tescos for the easy bike parking. We left through the mainly Georgian town with its old shops, instead of the cycleway. We went past the Maltings, a huge ugly building and then over a disused railway viaduct, now for walkers and cyclists only, over the North Esk river.

 

Little lanes past fields took us under the viaduct to St. Cyrus Nature Reserve beside the sand dunes. A visitor centre with cafe, originally a 19th lifeboat station is by the road while a footbridge built by Gurkhas in 1985 leads to the reserve of  salt marsh, dunes and cliffs, itself.

 

We climbed and climbed to the top of the cliff with breathtaking views over the reserve and sea. It was a very narrow road 85 metres up and with few cars. After St. Cyrus village it was 4 miles on the A92 until we had lunch at Johnshaven- the Anchor. We liked the Mad Dogs real ale from Burnside Brewery.

 

We took the Coastal Path deemed fit for cyclists for several miles but it was so bumpy with flint stones, we couldn’t wait to get off it. Even the fields near the sea seemed full of compacted stones but something green was growing well- perhaps winter wheat!

 

At Gourdon there was an ash track to Inverbervie. Seats on the front were made of plastic made to look like wood and made to last here so we sat on one. It was back on the A92 again for some way, winding uphill. At woods on the right we came off and went up a bit more. Looking back we noticed a huge smiley face cut in the fields of corn on the opposite hill. We had walked quite a bit today and we trudged up yet again but then it meant we could see the lovely views for longer!

 

On a hill looking out to sea, over Strathlethan Bay, we noticed the circular temple like structure that is Stonehaven’s war memorial- a fabulous site and monument just  before another  remarkable building, Dunottar Castle. This 14th century ruin of a fortress, standing on rock separated from the mainland by a deep ravine seemed to draw the tourists and was the busiest place we have been to this trip. We walked down to the ravine to get a picturesque photo but decided not to go in to the castle as it cost £5 each, it was 4.30 already and to be honest we hadn’t the energy.

 

 

 

The road down into Stonehaven was closed to cars as the cliff had subsided taking some of the road with it. As we rode down the hill we thought the harbour looked pleasant with lots of people giving it a buzz. The town was on the point of closing. The Tollbooth Museum(about Jails) open between 1.30 and 4.30  might have been interesting.

 

We found the Belvedere Hotel and booked just before lunch with luckily one room to spare. The bike had its own room downstairs and ours was up 2 flights of stairs but cosy and quiet despite it being a restaurant and pub. Our meals were really nice and I vowed to try out the recipe- chicken around brie in a blanket of parma ham and in a creamy mustard sauce with mash and roasted vegetables. MMM!

 

Day 95 Leuchars to Ethie Castle

 

 Date: Friday 23^rd September 2011   Distance: 40.61 Miles

 

After a good breakfast we left at 9 back through the town with RAF helicopters flying overhead on route to Tentsmuir Forest. At the local school a girl ran suddenly in front of us from between 2 cars. With a screech of brakes it was lucky for her we were holding back the cars!

 

Flat roads and narrow lanes gave way to a forest track leading to a car park (£2). It was murky weather but we crossed the sand dunes to look at the view across the water. We could hear rifle practise at the RAF base and we marvelled at the many different varieties of fungi in this forager’s paradise.

 

 

 

 

The path took us by the19th century Ice House used by the Salmon Industry for storage and now is home to rare natterer bats. We didn’t see red squirrels unfortunately or roe deer but it was 6 or 7 miles through this lovely old forest.

 

 Nearing civilisation we met people multi-walking large dogs and then we were cycling through housing estates at Tayport. There was disused railway line almost to the bridge and the weather deteriorated to rain again. Cyclists and pedestrians have a central lane with high sides on the Tay Road Bridge. It was noisy but perhaps this was someone’s idea at cutting down people committing suicide by jumping, which would be impossible.

 

Now in Dundee, a special lift took us down from the bridge to the cycle path again and as we could see the beautiful ship the Discovery we headed straight for that. There were some light refreshments here and then we had a look at the exhibition on Scot’s Antarctic expedition and around the ship itself. It was £8 but well worth a visit. Walking round the ship was evocative with coal placed in every nook and cranny. You could see where the cross beams went to prevent crushing from the ice, the salt pockets in the wood to absorb moisture and the vegetation in shoes and mattresses to absorb sweat all to prevent ice forming. An elderly attendant told us that naturalist Sir Walter Scott ( son of Robert who went on the expedition) had his children baptised on the boat using the ship’s bell as a font!

 

Bob needed trousers for our stay in the castle tonight so we stopped at Primark. It took a while what with the roads being dug up but eventually we were on our way out of busy Dundee via the Docks. An official in a little kiosk called across to us when we found a locked gate barring our way.”Have you got your passports with you?” he cried. Flabbergasted, we shouted that we had our driving licences and he said that would be OK and he released the lock and we went through. He was surely joking but he told us how to get out the other end that was also locked.

 

The route became nice and flat and we could see where we had come from across the Tay which was choppy. At Brought Ferry we stopped at the Ship Inn, a real ale pub for beer and soup. We changed into our shorts as it was now sunny and warm.

 

 

 

 

 

The Coastal cycleway took us to Arbroath with sea views most of the way. We had gone by the 3 famous golf courses at Carnoustie looking out for the3 Japanese, other guests in Hillpark House who were on a golfing holiday. The really tall one had his birthday today and we had sung him” happy birthday.”  One was very small and the other was middling size but altogether they made a noticeable trio. A builder’s lorry was parked across the track and we sidled by-just! No sightings though.

 

We would have liked an Arbroath Smokie but we had tea and scones instead at a seafront cafe attached to a Gallery. A young family from Dundee had followed us from the Docks and we chatted as we came into the town. It was about 17 miles so a fair way for young children. They would take the train back.

 

It is odd to see the well preserved ruin of the Abbey in an urban setting but when it was built 800 years ago few buildings existed around it. The visitor centre of red stone and glass has a moss covered roof.

 

We climbed 95 metres then it was down hill to Ethie Castle approached by a private lane. It is medieval in parts and we were shown to a room with a four poster bed and tapestries and a roll top bath in the warmer bathroom- the bedroom was draughty. We were a little surprised to realise that the connecting door to the next room allowed sound through from the guests there. It is an enormous building but they huddled the guests together. Was this to give moral support in the night when the ghosts are said to walk. We didn’t read up on them as we didn’t want to experience spooky appearances. Despite this I couldn’t sleep but that was probably the red wine and long drawn out dinner we had with our neighbours, who we found came from Sussex-my neck of the woods. Green lipped mussels, duck, creamed beetroot and stinking bishop cheese were some of the culinary delights we had, while a well stoked fire blazed in the cast iron stove and the castle’s 4 dogs (Jack Russells) squeezed behind the chair seats or looked at us with pleading eyes for a morsel from the table.

 

Before dinner we had walked around the restored walled garden with plenty of box hedging and quite a lot of late summer flowers. A folly allowed one to view the garden from a height. The owner gave guests guided tours of the castle but for some reason we didn’t get one, perhaps leaving too early in the morning. Our bike went in an out- building in the courtyard.

 

 

Day 94 Kirkcaldy to Leuchars

 

 Date: Thursday 22^nd September 2011   Distance: 46.91 Miles

 

It was a quiet night despite being on a main road near the town centre. Muffins and toast for breakfast! We must have looked hungry. Traditional breakfast was cooked nicely and it was prompt service. We left just after 9 with recommendations to eat fish at Anstruther and to visit the forest at Leuchars. We had also bemoaned the metro road-works in Edinburgh to our landlady and she told us that no one wants it as it is just swallowing billions with an ever delayed finish date.

 

The road went steeply up out of Kircaldy when we walked past a large flour mill both sides of the road. On the sea side is beautiful  Ravenscraig Park, 85 acres given to the town from  estates belonging to the now ruined  15th century castle. The romantic ruin sits on the cliff tops and from it are extensive sea views. This was such a surprise to us that we wondered why our landlady hadn’t mentioned it, being on their doorstep so to speak.  Kirkaldy has a generous supply of public places- greens and parks and we were told that the EU played a big part in this, sharing costs with ex -mining towns.

 

We rode through the park until its end, when we took a road to Leven and the coastal path by the Links. It was a pretty ride though rough at times so necessitated a walk. Another course at Lundin seemed to extend from Leven. We came off the path here through some crater- like puddles and stopped at the top of the hill for refreshments at the hotel. We decided not to stick to the path as it was 11 already and we had done few miles because of the sand dune type terrain.

 

Lundin links is full of seaside houses and laid out gardens and as we reached Upper Largo we are close to a huge mound, Largo Law, viewed for some time this morning and a 952 feet  extinct volcano.

 

At Earlsferry and Elie we seemed to have views right across to NorthBerwick and Bass Rock. Then came St. Monans with its Gold Award (we didn’t see why others should just have bronze or silver) and promise of historic sites like the windmill used in salt panning in 18th century. We were really looking forward to revisiting Pittenweem after more than 20 years but we were a bit disappointed. We remembered villagers decorating Viking boats and pubs with loads of character. The place was quiet except for a few tourists visiting the 7th century St Fillan’s cave down the stepped (so not for the bike) Cove Wynd. The little town’s name means place of the cave. I had remembered shells but  the beach had black seams of rock, though the tide was fairly well in.

This is Pittenweem's harbour-

 

2 miles further on we stopped for lunch, as advised by several people, at Anstruther. It is reputedly the best in Scotland for fish and chips and the signs on the shop cum cafe spelt out awards achieved ( not 2011 as yet) The fish is caught and landed across the road in the harbour. We had to queue for a seat. It is a take-away, cafe and ice cream parlour and lunch time is really busy especially with school children. My elderberry wine, made locally, was nice. Our food came in cardboard cartons and it was an exceedingly long wait, especially for Bob’s coffee which had to arrive with the food (?!)  making me feel guilty about drinking my wine. The chips were lovely and crisp but the fish was very small- surely not regulation size. There was a film playing about fishing as people queued. A family business, I wonder if they are the victims of their own success.

 

Leaving we passed the Scottish Fishery Museum and later a sign for the Secret Bunker (for use of the Government in the event of a nuclear war)  as we carried on to Crail. Merely a Silver Gilt( what is it with all these awards) a splendid tableau of rockery plants depicting a crab heralded the boundary of  the town. It is certainly a pretty harbour and the town has a market cross and a variety of shops possibly with frontages dating from 1950s. I liked it and Bob had his eyes on the road.

 

It was 10 hard miles to St.Andrews with good views of the sea. There was a lovely view down to St. Andrews, with its ancient buildings, golf course and coastline. Down all the way to the harbour and then up to the12th Century ruin of the Cathedral which is huge and a big tourist attraction, we passed beside the ancient university buildings and the castle then the golf museum and Links. Opposite this and surrounded by golfing emporiums, we had a drink and warm up in a pub.

 

We rode out through the Links but then lost the Path and had to return to the road. It was very against the wind for the next 6 miles but shrubs separated us from the road until we had a separate cycleway. We saw our first swarm of geese arranging themselves for migration flight and then worryingly soon after jet planes from the RAF base at Leuchars practising landings and disappearing behind trees on the Estuary’s edge.

 

There was a lot of traffic near the Base and later in the town there is a beautiful medieval church(1180) with quite unusual architectural markings on a 3 tiered tower.

Our B and B was a little out of the town. Built in 1906 we had a separate bathroom with an original roll top bath and lead shower enclosure complete with brass fittings. Our room was cosy and the proprietors allow a separate room for people to have take- outs, as pubs in the town don’t do food. We walked a mile down the road past the golf club to St Michaels Inn where we ate well, especially Bob who had casserole of venison. Because it was dark and the road unlit we caught a bus back and were dropped at the door!  Hillspark House was a most relaxing stay though I was a bit disconcerted by the elaborate screen put up for our modesty as we went to the bathroom in the night!

Day 93  Edinburgh to Kirkcaldy

 

 Date: Wednesday 21^st September 2011   Distance: 37.87 Miles

 

We cycled to Manchester airport station at 6.30 to catch the 7.25 train to Edinburgh. Groups of friendly people on the train helped the 3 hour, mainly rural, journey to pass more quickly. We arrived at Waverley Station at 11am and were soon cycling in light drizzle and wind.

 

I loved all the beautiful lofty buildings and Bob hated all the misleading or non- existent cycleway signs. Edinburgh is suffering from the laying of the metro lines and we seemed to be going round in circles trying to find a way out of it. The main street Princes Street was road blocked and we had to walk a fair bit as cycleway became squeezed into a walkway. It seemed like we were making progress as we headed for Murrayfield but then the signs left us high and dry and we retraced tracks to find cycle route 1.

 

Panic was beginning to rise when we ended up in school grounds. Round and round we went looking for the little blue sign. Heaven knows what they all thought of this yellow and pink vision on a two-seater!

 

I had been trying to tell Bob that I had seen what looked like a railway bridge with a path underneath but maybe the wind carried my voice away. It was a disused railway line and it then began to feel like we were leaving the city.

 

After a few miles we passed 3 quite elderly people heading for John o’Groats. The sky was black and we were hungry so we stopped at the first pub, the Crammond Brigg, only 7 miles from where we started. As we chose our food the heavens seriously opened and I felt for those poor cyclists plodding onwards. There was no real ale and the food was expensive and full of things Bob shouldn’t eat but we were glad to be there with friendly people. The airport was a mile off and planes flew low overhead.

 

We left when the rain became less of a torrent and the terrain was mainly countryside heading towards the Firth of Forth Bridge. There were very few people on the disused railway line and later cycleway beside the road. There was a fantastic view of the famous Queensferry railway bridge on our right and the rain seemed to be clearing. We rode through unlikely looking housing estates, twisting and turning, then beside the road leading to the bridge. Little tempting patches of blue disappeared under heavy cloud and visibility over the water deteriorated so that buildings seemed to half disappear.

 

There was no warning but the cycle way was closed our side of the bridge and we had to carry the bike down stairs and under a tunnel. When we came to the other side we stayed put while another deluge came down. After eating something sweet to give us a lift we set off across the Forth in the biting cold and wet, leaning to the left to stop ourselves falling over with the 3 John o’ Groaters struggling just ahead of us. High wind signs banned double- decker buses.

 

Over the other side the sky suddenly started to clear to a beautiful blue. We noticed a strong cherry smell just as we came into Inverkeithing, where it was lovely down by the sea as the cycleway followed the same path as the coastal path. Views back to Edinburgh were really good and the seaweed on the beach smelled briny and fresh. We now had a tail wind!

 

We met a girl cyclist sitting barefoot by a ruined church right on the sea’s edge. She had a bike with a plastic solar panel that powered her cyclometer but she said it’s not much good in Scotland, especially today.

 

It was through Delgety and then back to hugging the coast. Next was Aberdour Golf Club with greens on either side of the cycleway. There were iron gates to go through into Aberdour town and opposite these was a hotel where we had a pit stop. We warmed up a bit but the padding in my shorts remained soggy.

 

Somehow we missed Silver Sands but again we were right by the edge of the sea on a very narrow, rough path. We passed a waterfall looking like it was cascading over earth but it must have been solid else it would have washed away.

 

We climbed all the way through Burntisland that seemed to have a lot of modern housing and then it was over another hill, a couple of swoops up and down to, on approach, an impressive looking Kircaldy. It was muddy sand for a beach with gannets vertical diving, beaks like harpoons, off shore.

 

 

We rode along the promenade until the harbour, where we turned left and left again where we hit the main road and” Dunedin “,our 19th century Guest house. This large house has modern minimalistic decor and the bike was locked round the back but with no cover. We ate at the Weatherspoon “Robert Nairn”, with a Scottish menu and Bob tried his first Cullen Skink, smoked haddock soup.