“Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time”

Hi,

Welcome to The City Walker. As you might have guessed, this blog is about walking in the city, in particular Edinburgh. Each week I will walk a different route around Edinburgh. The purpose of this is to encourage people, including myself, to take more exercise, both lazy and busy people (I know that there seems to be a contradiction in terms but it turns out we are two sides of the same coin) who see exercise as a bit of chore.

It is generally considered that walking 10,000 steps a day is a good way to keep reasonably fit. If, like me, you work in an office you will quite easily only walk 4000 steps a day – that’s what I was averaging before I started this. I find walking to work is one of the easiest ways to increase the number of steps taken, as it is very easy to build it into your routine and it becomes a “ good” habit.

So I’ll cut to the chase and we can start with my first walk. This is the walk from Newhaven Road at Newhaven Road Bridge (see pic) to Canonmills.


Newhaven Road Bridge - and start of the walk.

This is a fairly easy walk and is both scenic and a very practical short cut for getting into work or town. It’s just under a mile and about 2000 steps.

Starting from Newhaven Road Bridge you go down the steps that take you to the Water of Leith Path, and head towards town, not in the direction of the shore (that’s a walk for another day). This follows the route of the old railway line and takes you on to a network of paths that can go as far as Roseburn and Cramond. Essentially, this walk is just a straight line so it’s almost impossible to go the wrong way.

After a short while you should come to Steadfastgate (275 steps). This offers a magnificent view of the city (see pics), towards Arthur Seat and Carlton Hill. Continue on straight, avoiding the detour that you takes you on to the Water of Leith on the left hand side. You continue on Warriston Path, past some Wisteria Lane style houses, (two cars parked in every drive but no people).


Steadfastgate


The View - (never point a camera directly at the sun!)

There is a junction for Trinity (525) but we continue straight on and past some lovely allotments, often people stop to paint them in the summer, the best time to view then is the evening when the sun is setting (see pic). Continuing along past the junction at St. Marks Path (750). This can be a nice detour if you want to walk to Macdonald Road or Leith Walk.


The Allotments

From here on we come to a long avenue of trees, many of which have been planted on the old station platforms. There is a high wall on the right hand side, which backs on to Warriston Cemetery. There is a turn off for B&Q (950), which is handy if you like DIY, it also has excellent recycling facilities, and these are not as busy as those at Tesco up the road.

We next come to a cemetery bridge, a lovely architectural feature that separates old Warriston Cemetery from the newer parts. At this point we come to a Y junction, where we have a choice of routes, we can follow the path directly left to take the Tesco Variation or dogleg left then straight ahead at the sign post for Goldenacre Path and Standard Life (1300).


The Sign- that takes us to Canonmills

On following this path we come down to the back of Warriston playing fields. This is quite a slope and can be slippy in winter or when it rains (so that’s most of the time). We are afforded a lovely view of Eildon Street, and taken past another excellent allotment. We come out on Warriston Crescent (not really a Crescent). Follow the path until we come to the Orchard (1800), formerly the Northern Bar. If it’s morning you will normally be greeted by a Blue Meanie who regularly patrols this quiet bit of road, rich pickings I think especially if you have slept in by a few minutes past 8.30am.

From the Orchard you are directly opposite Tanfield and there is a selection of buses that come along this road, including the 8, 17, 19a, 23,and 27. A left turn takes you over the bridge at the Water of Leith and past a great selection of restaurants including the Loon Fung (Chinese), Dionka (Tapas) and a great Indian take-away, the Eastern Spices.


Canonmills - The end of the line

Our final destination is the bus stop across from Canonmills clock (2000) (see pic). Cross the road at the traffic lights past the Circle café, a nice place for a latte pit stop, and we are there. It’s easy to get the 23 and 27 uptown from here, and you are a stone's throw from Stockbridge.

This is an excellent walk. If you are used to getting the number 11 bus from Newhaven Road, up Leith Walk and along Princes Street, this takes the same amount of time as it’s only a short hop up Hanover Street to the Mound. It takes at least 25 minutes on the bus during the rush hour. If you do this walk to work and back then you should add 4000+ steps to your daily total.

Hope you enjoyed this or at least found it interesting. If you feel inspired enough to actually do it then even better.

The next walk - The Tesco Variation and handy walking tips (i.e. put one foot in front of the other).

Cheers
The City Walker

Any feedback on this post will be gracefully accepted and you can even contact me directly at walk@thecitywalker.co.uk. There is a website - www.thecitywalker.co.uk but at the moment it's just a holding page and a link to this blog.