The weather looked pretty good on Christmas Eve so my daughter and I set off to walk the John Muir Way from East Linton to Dunbar…about 6 miles. Doing a bit of research on the route I discovered that it was actually the 110th anniversary of his death. He died on 24th December 1914. A bit of a coincidence.
Funnily enough, growing up in Dunbar, his birthplace, I was never really aware of his fame. It took a friend visiting from the USA to tell me about his significance as the “father of national parks” there.
We started off at Preston Mill in East Linton. Made more famous by Outlander.
We headed along the river Tyne for a bit. The water isn’t as high as I would have thought but then the weather has been pretty reasonable recently.
We crossed the river 3 times in total as it twists and turns and then we turned away from the river just south of Tyninghame and headed across the fields. Here we’re looking back across the fields towards East Linton.
We reached the edge of Belhaven Bay and could almost see the sea. Dog’s ears show how windy it is. Luckily the wind was at our backs.
We walked along the inlet, the tide was well out. The sky was pretty dramatic.
We then hit the John Muir Country Park. What used to be a thick forest was devastated by Storm Arwen 3 years ago. I hadn’t really seen it since then and it was pretty sad to see.
We skirted the side of the East Links family farm. The dog was intrigued by one of the exotic birds. Many a summer’s day spent with the kids here in the past…too big for it now though.
We then headed across the flats, towards the wide expanse of beach. A series of wooden bridges took us across the streams. Dunbar is just on the horizon.
Finally on to Belhaven beach. The tide was pretty far out and the view was quite dramatic with the Bass Rock, Berwick Law and Traprain Law all easily visible. The Bass Rock is in this picture. The Isle of May and the Fife coast were also clear.
After the dog had attempted to dig to Australia we reached the famous Belhaven “bridge to nowhere”. We had to carry the dog over as her paws are quite small and the grid of the bridge is quite large.
We then headed round the point, skirting Winterfield golf course. The wind was really strong here but the views were great. Looking back over Belhaven Bay with the Bass Rock, Berwick Law and Traprain Law all visible in the distance.
We were going to walk the clifftop trail into Dunbar and find somewhere for a hot drink but on rounding the corner we found a sign advertising the cafe in Winterfield gold club. Dog friendly! So we decided to end the walk here and had a coffee in the cafe before catching the bus back to East Linton from Belhaven.
Tartantastic 
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