My wife and I went on quite a long walk today, down the river to Leith and back. It was a lovely walk, but we were absolutely knackered by the time we got back !
There is quite a nice river path that works its way through Edinburgh towards the old port of Leith. It passes along disused railway lines which is quite interesting, and we found a lot of graffiti along the way, like that above which was under one of the old railway underpasses.
It was quite a nice day, although quite cold - it was reading as 9 degrees C, but with the wind, it was chilling to colder than that (more like about 4 degrees).
We saw a lot of cool stuff along the way including the Heron above. These are quite large birds, at around 0.75m tall. They spend their day fishing. We spotted this one on the way on our walk, and it was in the same place when we were on our way back about an hour later - thats patience for you !
I loved the wee feature above. Its a little ceramic mosaic design that just happened to be randomly under one of the bridges along the way - spectacular !
And this little interesting we pedestrian tunnel goes under one of the old railway lines. There clearly used to be a lot more commuter railway lines in Edinburgh, but a lot of them got closed down, probably in the 60s. We were quite surprised at how many different ones we passed today - around 4 different lines from what we could tell.
There is an art installation running along the river in Edinburgh (the river is called the Water of Leith) where bronze statues of men are positioned in the river along its length. The one above had caught a whole load of flotsam and jetsam, noting that the river had been a lot higher over the last couple of weeks due to all the rain we've have had.
I loved this face on the end of this wall - simple graffiti, but enough to bring a smile to my face !
And the art work on this old location case was quite impressive !!!
The path along the river has not always existed and it was all constructed and joined up over a number of decades. We found this lovely sign for a section that had been opened back in 1983 (when I was 11 !).
We had walked further than planned so were getting quite tired. We basically made it to the edge of Leith - took a picture (above) and immediately turned back !!!
We also passed this lovely sculpture above. These are dotted all over the country for the national cycle network. They are similar in shape but uniquely different representing the particular area they are in, and its always cool to see them.
In some places along the river we were starting to get some nice reflections where the water was still !
And on the way back were were starting to get some nice sunset colours.
I also like the splash of colour in the graffiti above which was at the entrance to one of the bridge underpasses.
We also spotted the old marker above at one of the dis-used railway platforms from one of the old commuter lines.
And by the time we got back to Inverleith park where we started we were able to capture a nice view over Edinburgh across the pond. I love how the trees were reflecting in the water - quite cool indeed.
We loved the walk, although at 6 miles long, we were quite done in by the end of it - but it was lovely. I hope you have had a lovely Sunday too - all the best from Scotland !!!