Change Your World One Mile at a Time

Thank you to every one who offered me advice and support on my first blog, especially those that took the time to post comments. And yes, there will be maps!

This week’s quote comes courtesy of Sustrans. The average length of my walks will generally be about a mile (2000 – 2500 steps) so it seems we have similar aims.

The Tesco Variation, as mentioned in the last blog, starts from Bonnington, although you could join at Goldenacre Path, easy if you are coming from Trinity or Ferry Road.


Warriston Cemetry Bridge - the start, kinda

When you get to the cemetery bridge (see pic) on Warriston Path (1250 steps) just follow the path round the corner on to Goldenacre Path. You will quite clearly see that you are on a bridge over the Water of Leith. This gives a lovely aspect of Edinburgh including Arthur’s Seat and Carlton Hill, and an excellent view of a fantastic allotment (see pic). This is one of my favourite spots. I quite often have a moment here, to take in the view or watch the development of the allotment in different seasons. It’s places like this that makes city walking worthwhile.


Allotments - We can grow alfalfa and live of the fat of the land...

The path continues directly on past the entrance to Tesco (1800). If you were just coming to do your shopping, this would be a natural end point. I’m a big fan of walking to the shops and if you don’t have a family of four to feed, you can quite easily do your weekly shop here. There are good recycling facilities but they tend to be overused (Question: What’s the mindset of someone who recycles their bottles and then just dumps the box they came in, next to the bins?). There are more extensive and under-used facilities at B&Q. Go there on your way to Tesco. It doesn’t take much longer.


Rodney Street Tunnel - Can you see the light...

Continue past the recycling point, where all the Tesco workers have their fag breaks (I don’t think they are allowed to smoke in front of the store), and you’ll come to the Rodney Street Tunnel (see pic). I’ve been following the work on the tunnel quite closely and I’m sure there are a lot of walkers and cyclists who have been expecting it to open soon. It’s worth pointing out the following statement on the sign (see pic):

“The work at present includes strengthening the tunnel only. Sustrans has a long term aspiration to work in partnership with City of Edinburgh to create a lit path through the tunnel as a safe traffic free alternative.”

“…Long term aspiration…” this is “newspeak” for - we have run out of money! I’ll do some digging around (see what I did there) and see if I can find out anything. But it looks like the boys at City Hall have messed things up for the little guy once again.


Sustrans - "long term aspiration"

Rodney Street Junction - An easy crossing?

When you come to the end of the path on Broughton Road (1900), turn down to the junction at Rodney Street (see pic). There are a lot of great wee shops here including The Bike Chain and a lovely florist. It’s quite easy from here, traffic permitting, to head directly on to Eyre Place, past Maclauclans bar, and then Smithies bar, which does a good pint of IPA. At the Capital City Partnership building (2100) there are some interesting cut-out animals on the roof, don't know why they are there but I kinda like them.

You will walk past a park, a great restaurant, Duck's at le Marche Noir, and the back of the RBS building (or as I like to call it - The Tyrell Corporation).


Lovely park with bins

Roof foxes and other animals

Then you come to the Junction on Dundas Street (2350) where there are lots of sandwich bars, which feed the bank workers. There’s a lot of building work to navigate as the walk finishes at the bus stop, just past Fettes Row (2500). The view up The Mound is great and luckily I’m not recommending you walk all the way up – at least not this time.


Dundas Street - A bit of an obstacle course

This walk takes less than 20 minutes and it’s a quick 5-10 minute hop on the 23 or 27 bus uptown. Catching the number 11 on Newhaven Road will take at least 25 minutes during the rush hour. So a 20-minute walk has only taken 5 minutes out of your day. 10 minutes if you do it to work and back, and you will have had a 40-minute daily walk.

Hope you enjoyed this walk and I’ll be posting maps for both walks very soon, thank you Google maps.

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.