Take a tram out from the city centre to Edinburgh Park Station (fare £2 at time of writing). A large Tesco nearby can provide supplies. Pick up the obvious walkway beside the tracks. It is signposted as a cycle route. The halt at Bankhead is soon reached. Trams shuttle by, as do trains on the adjacent main Edinburgh to Glasgow railway. Locals have cut a grassy short-cut off the main drag towards Saughton tram stop. When you reach the platforms, cross over the tracks to descend the staircase and continue paralleling the rails on the other side. The scrapyard on your left soon gives way to an allotment site.
Ignore a raised wooden footbridge to your left and stay by the tram tracks to glide over the railway and skirt a golf course. There is sufficient elevation around this point to provide a view of Edinburgh Castle in the distance. As you encounter Balgreen Halt, the old Corstorphine branch line curves away to the left. Take this route, now part of the long-distance John Muir Way. The Pinkhill Station platforms remain extant (the line closed back in 1968). The railway path peters out at a modern residential area. Turn right along an alleyway (signed Edinburgh Zoo) shortly before the housing and this brings you to the A8. Frequent buses run towards the city. Alternatively, walk the mile back to Balgreen on a downhill gradient and catch a tram.
