coastrider: Isolation Cycle Pt 49; Haddington Branch Line...

Today being the weekend we avoided the coast that would be and later was mobbed with folk and cycled the Haddington Branch Line to visit Mum and have some lunch in the garden..

4 miles of cinder track with elegant bridges and when in cuttings the banks are full of wildlife, while from the bankings are good views of the local Garleton hills and across to Edinburgh and nearer Longniddry views across to Gullane and out across the Firth of Forth and Fife...

Look at the stone work on this bridge, a pice of art, built in the 1960`s and standing the test of time...

Wildlife markers educate folk on what's to see, great idea and I think more old disused railway lines should be turned into cycle ways, away from cars so far safer for families to cycle and the gradients are always gentle as they were designed for goods trains towing heavy loads....

Over the country road at Cottyburn and in the ivy here is the ruins of a former coaching road from when this was the main road to Edinburgh, yeah hard to imagine this was once the main road!, it can be traced on old maps up over the Garleton hills and down past Coates farm and on south of the present railway past Prestonpans...