Fourteen parks and a touch of culture

Today's ride took us through fourteen Edinburgh parks and the touch of culture was provided by visits to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Craigentinny Marbles.

A chilly, damp start to the day resulted in a [relatively] low turnout of 22 riders. A very rare occurence for recent rides; this meant we only needed one group instead of two. We left the Meadows and threaded our way through the backstreets of Morningside and on through Braidburn Valley Park. We carried on through Colinton Mains Park, Spylaw Park and bypassed Colinton village. We rode through the curved Colinton Tunnel and onto the Water of Leith Path. Having crossed the busy Slateford Road, we paused briefly at the Water of Leith Visitor Centre before pressing on past Murrayfield Stadium and through Roseburn Park. The Water of Leith Path and Belford Road took us to our first culture stop and lunch at the Gallery of modern Art. Many of the group were more interested in lunch than the art. It was even suggested that one of the sculptures would be ideal for locking bikes to! You can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. We partook in a very pleasant lunch from the cafe. By now the weather had improved. Sitting outside, the sun came out and for a while it felt quite warm.

Sufficiently fed and watered, we made our way through Ravelston Dykes before taking the Roseburn, Telford and Ferry Road Paths to head towards The Shore at Leith. Just before we left the path, we stopped to admire a cormorant sitting on a log in the middle of the Water of Leith.

The paths across Leith Links, through Lochend and Lochend Park took us to Craigentinny. Tucked away down Craigentinny Crescent, an unassuming suburban street is a most impressive mausoleum - the Craigentinny Marbles. David, ably assisted by Jim gave us an interesting talk about it. It is well worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

We made our way via Mountcastle into Figgate Park where we rode round the pond. After donning waterproofs due to a heavy shower, we left the park and headed through Duddingston before returning to the Meadows via the Innocent Railway Path. This final stretch was where we had our only puncture of the day.

Leader: David

Report: Glenn

Photos: Glenn

Trace: Jim