My Christmas holidays had begun and I had a few days spare time until the big day itself. Nicole has recently started a new job in Rosyth and required use of the car until she broke off on Christmas Eve. I decided to plan a couple of walks around her schedule, dropping her off in the morning and returning at the end of the shift. I researched walking routes in both North and South Queensferry as they were both close at hand. I crossed the Forth on a Monday morning and parked at Dalmeny station. There was a lot of free space as no doubt many city commuters had already knocked off for the year.
I had of course been to South Queensferry many times. The views from the promenade of the iconic Forth Bridge are stunning and the town has a nice selection of shops, pubs and cafes. It is a popular destination for day trippers and there is a noticeable presence from overseas. I headed down the old railway path towards the town centre. This was a freight line serving Port Edgar - a military base between the current road bridges. Another trail heads in the opposite direction to Kirkliston and I had done the entire route last summer. On that particular occasion I had also hoped to visit the Queensferry Museum but found it closed. Hopefully I would rectify that today. The walkable section of tracked tapered out in a Co-Op car-park where the post office is also located. I had a package to ship off to Canada to one of Nicole's online friends. I also needed to buy a couple of Christmas gifts and this was part of the reason I had chosen to visit South Queensferry. There are two or three nice boutiques here and I would surely pick up something suitable. If not, I could always high-tail it up the motorway to Perth or along to Linlithgow. Leaving it until tomorrow (Christmas Eve) would be cutting things a bit fine. I checked out a pleasant gift shop and bought a coffee mug with a quirky bird design. Off to a good start! I wandered along the shore to Port Edgar - now a marina for pleasure craft.
I enjoyed the view across to Fife with the road crossings either side of me. It started to drizzle so I marched back to the High Street and ducked into the museum. The building also houses council offices and a sign directed me to the exhibits upstairs. I had just started climbing when a voice called out "sorry, the museum is closed until January" - drat! Looks like I'll have to test the third time lucky theory. The Ferry Tap pub was just across the road and in the process of opening its doors. I ordered a pint of Stewart's beer - a Lothian brewery that has done extremely well in the pub trade across central Scotland. I remember buying their mini-casks at farmers' markets many years ago. The Stewart tap room is close to IKEA and I recommend stopping by. I strolled down to the seafront and fortunately the weather had brightened up. I noticed a jeweller was having a closing down sale and I snapped up a pair of silver earrings. That virtually completed my Xmas shopping list bar a couple of minor items and I could breathe easily again. I also bought a Forth Bridge calendar for my dad in the Three Bridges Cafe. They have a little souvenir shop at the entrance. I then faced a lengthy slog up a staircase to haul me up to bridge level and onwards to Dalmeny Station. With time on my hands, I had lunch in Burger King and took full advantage of their bottomless drinks machine. I drove along for a look at Hopetoun House, a grand mansion at the centre of a sprawling estate. They are opening up their grounds for a snowdrop walk in the middle of February and I'm hoping to attend.
The next day was Christmas Eve and Nicole was due to finish at lunch time. Today's itinerary was a visit to the National Trust owned House of the Binns in West Lothian and a quick wander around North Queensferry on the Fife side of the Forth. The pictured mansion is the residence of the Dalyell Family who sold the property and surrounding estate to the National Trust in 1944 but retained the right to inhabit the manor house. Tours of the residence can be booked during the warmer months and the estate grounds are free to visit all year round. My plan was to scoot up the small hill that looks down upon Blackness Castle and across the Firth of Forth. I delivered Nicole to her workplace just before nine and crossed the river before heading in the direction of Bo'ness. The estate entrance was signposted from the A904 and I drove up to the car park beside the house. An information point had a picture of the Dalyells handing over the keys to representatives of the National trust. In the foreground was a small boy named Thomas. He later became known as Tam and a was prominent Labour politician for decades. He is remembered for posing the so-called West Lothian Question on whether non-English MPs should be able to vote upon English-only matters after political devolution. Incidentally, Tam was instantly recognisable from the childhood photograph.
A signed path led towards the Binns Hill and I immediately encountered several peafowl. Apparently there are over 20 on the estate. They didn't seem too perturbed by my presence and would simply scuttle a few yards if I entered their personal space. I've never actually seen a peacock fly, apart from a chick fluttering a few feet on to a branch inside an aviary. I passed through a pleasant area of woodland and made the easy climb to the summit. Binns Tower, Dalyell’s Folly and The Wager are all names for the same turret located here. It’s said to be visited by a long dead Pictish warrior, the Ghost of Bloody Tam Dalyell and overlooks a pond allegedly occupied by a malevolent water spirit known as Green Jeanie (did it inspire David Bowie?). The folly is positioned at the highest point of the estate and designed to both overlook and be seen by the neighbouring landowners – the Hopes – a family Sir James Dalyell was quite content to upset. The building was commissioned in 1825 and legend insists it was the result of a bet to see which gentleman in the area could spend £100 in the most pointless but wittiest way. Sir James collected the cash when he proposed building a watchtower that would spy upon his neighbour’s estate. Standing 36 feet tall, the structure has three stories and the architectural style matches the main house. It features faux battlements and a spiral staircase winding its way to the viewing platform at the top. Unfortunately it was locked up when I arrived.
Binns Hill is only 329 feet above sea level but it is the highest point on the landscape for miles around. There is indeed a lovely panoramic view of the River Forth, looking down upon Blackness Castle and across the water to Fife. Binns Tower actually shares the summit with an Ordnance Survey trig point but you can see in the photo that the tower just shades it in terms of altitude. There is some nice walking to enjoy along the banks of the Forth between Bo'ness and South Queensferry and I have visited Blackness Castle on a couple of occasions. It was used as a filming location for the highly-successful Outlander TV series which is broadcast around the world. It's certainly not unusual to see buses disgorging foreign tourists at these Outlander spots and the economic spin-off must be substantial. Below the Binns Estate, a sliver of Falkirk Council territory snakes along the coast to wrap around Blackness village. I can't imagine the locals identifying culturally as Falkirk Bairns as everything about this area screams Lothians - which traditionally extend as far west as Bo'ness. You often find this tinkering with historic boundaries involves transferring whole civil parishes to another local government organisation. I'm not sure if this makes everything simpler from a legal point of view or whether it's just cheaper and more convenient than drawing actual new boundaries.
I lingered on top for a while before making my way back to the car park. There is a suggested circular walk around the wider grounds but I had to head back over the bridge as I was on a fairly tight timescale. I passed a minor road leading to Hopetoun House, the centrepiece of the neighbouring estate. I had planned to attend their annual snowdrop walk in February but am typing the day after it was cancelled due to adverse weather. Back to Christmas Eve - I drove to North Queensferry to complete a heritage walk I had left half done a few months ago. I parked more or less under the mighty Forth Bridge and wandered up the steep road towards the station, passing an old well on the way. I wanted to find a path down to the beach at Port Laing. I had been up this end of town before when working my way to the summit of Ferry Hills. Not a huge peak but one offering nice views of the surrounding water and back into West Fife. It's also a favourite hunting ground for twitchers (not that I would know about that!) and gives a bird's-eye view of the deep quarrying operations hidden from the normal road and rail corridors. From the entrance to the hill path, I had noticed a tarmac track branching downwards and I wondered if this would offer access to the sands. Satellite mapping suggested it might.
I descended to find my way blocked by a fence guarding private property. I decided to try the rotting style slightly further up which allowed me to cross a patch of grass and head into the trees. This had obviously been a right of way to the beach in the past but appeared to have fallen out of use. The path was in poor condition and the wooden step risers in a state of decay. Nevertheless I gingerly made my way down and couldn't help noticing the purpose-built walkway in the garden of the adjacent property. Nice if you can afford it. A pleasant stroll across the beach brought me to a path junction. A route led upwards to a housing scheme and I decided to use this access point in my walk description for the website. Far safer for anyone following my instructions. I continued on my merry way along the official Fife Coastal Path which originally began in North Queensferry before being extended back to the Kincardine Bridge. This area is designated as a nature reserve and I soon faced an uphill section at Carlingnose Point. A short detour took me to a viewpoint looking eastwards along the Firth of Forth. I then gradually descended to the town and decided to examine the maritime heritage. A ferry service operated across the water for centuries before being threatened by the arrival of the boat train between Granton and Burntisland, then the construction of the Forth Bridge. Despite the revolutionary rail links, the ferrymen continued to ply their trade.
The crossing was originally established by Queen Margaret in the 11th century - hence the names of the towns on either side. The service reinvented itself by carrying motor vehicles and their occupants as the 20th century progressed. My parents both vividly remember the ferry across the Forth and were in their late teens / early twenties when the link was finally discontinued after 800 years of operation. The culprit was the Forth Road Bridge which was - somewhat ironically - opened by the Queen in 1964. Suddenly Fife was properly connected to the Lothians although you had to pay a toll for the next 40-odd years. Charges were initially collected at both ends but this arrangement was altered so you only paid when heading north (no doubt to speed up morning traffic flow into the city). With the Kincardine Bridge offering free access further upstream, no doubt a few enterprising souls who lived roughly equidistant from both crossings could beat the system. I wandered down to the town pier, the main departure point until the railway slip was established in 1877. This is still the pre-bridge era when trains pulled up on the shore. This passenger line obviously became redundant with the opening of the Forth Bridge and North Queensferry station.
All sailings were transferred to the old railway pier in 1920, no doubt because the ferries were now carrying vehicles and therefore drawing a deeper draught. The town pier is now a pleasant area to wander around and is close to the pubs and shops. It struck me that I'd never actually been for a meal or a drink in North Queensferry, although I'd explored the place on foot a few times. Yet I've dined and supped a few pints immediately across the water on many occasions. South Queensferry (often simply Queensferry to Lothians folk) snaffles the lion's share of the tourist trade, despite the Fife side being just over a mile distant; an extra 5 minutes in the car or the next stop on the train when travelling from the Edinburgh direction. Pure convenience or Fife having something of an image problem? My final port of call was the little lighthouse dating from 1817. Adjacent to the town pier, the Stevenson structure kept passengers, livestock, cargo and mail moving safely across the Forth. It was fully restored and reopened as a public attraction in 2010. Two dozen stairs lead to the lamp room and despite the cramped interior, a wealth of exhibits and information is displayed inside. I must confess I had no knowledge of the lighthouse prior to spotting it from across the bay today. Truly a hidden gem.
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