Midweek Coast rides are back on!

Sunrise 07:40   Sunset 17:12

At last the evening light is starting to draw out and i can now get out a ride on the coast straight after work before sunset.
For me this means a lot as it helps shorten the working week which although is in winter only a 35 hour week it can be a drag when the weather is not good and it is damp, cold and overcast like it has been since the weekend.
Today dawned with 90% clear sky so i rode to work on the Surly Pugsley, while the Nates were drumming away on the tarmac slowly light came to the day, along with bird song, not been a lot of bird song for  a couple of months,
Spring is not far away...

Into the light...

The county is still very wet under foot...

Sunrise from Whitekirk Hill...

A quick day at work warmed in the shed from a low winter sun shining in, then at 3pm off out on the pugsley,
North towards the coast on an ancient right of way that was in the 19th century part of a coach road from North Berwick to Whitekirk.

Most of these old routes were lined with Hawthorn hedgerows as this old road was until the 1960s when the centre section had its hedges removed by the landowner. Laws are in place today in Scotland to protect what remains of these ancient hedgerows...
Beech is also often used as it has great water intake which helped keep these old routes drained...

Muddy after yesterdays rain on already saturated ground... could do with some beech planted here!...

Today the old route is signed as `Beckys Strip` No one i have asked locally knows who she was...
Here the uncut hedge is slowly growing into trees...

What we do know is what this corner of old stone wall is all that remains of what was once an Inn called Whitehall with stables for horses which indicates the importance a long time ago of this old thoroughfare between Whitekirk and North Berwick...

Here on the 1821 John Ainslie`s map of Haddingtonshire we see Whitehall marked at this junction on the track in the centre of the picture...

How small agricultural machinery once was with this old gates width...

Not many old farm steadings like this still remain undeveloped into housing here in East Lothian...

 One of the best views of East Lothian;  looking across Tantallon Castle to the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth, in front of the Bass Rock are the buildings of the WW2 Radar Research base of Gin Head...

Nearby and recently renovated from a private house to a Holiday home is Canty Bay House...

It was originally a Hotel, and here is a picture of it in former times...

The views are unchanged today  as then... except the Bass Rock is whiter since the Gannets have since colonised the isle...

Here an old pic shows the Bass before it was covered in Gannet Poo!....

Below the main road are the holiday buildings and house of Canty Bay...

Again here is another two old pics of Canty Bay...

The west beach at Canty Bay...

The Bass...

I dropped down onto the beach at Canty Bay..

It was quiet except for the noise of waves breaking on the show...
Some wave therapy...

Oyster Catchers...

Some more wave Therapy before riding west and across the rocks....

Fantastic late afternoon low winter sun...

Up and over the headland around an incoming tide covering the shoreline...

In the distance on the cliff tops is Gin Head WW2 radar research facility...

On along the coast into the setting winter sun...

North Berwick Town in the distance...

Coastal singletrack...

Heading home as the sun sank on the horizon...

While here at The Rhodes east of North Berwick an old pic on the same spot many years ago...

Cracking sunset...

Happy Days...