If You Go One Place…
An evening bike ride from North Berwick is a feast for the senses
Jump on your bike for a cycle along North Berwick’s stunning castle-littered coastline
THE rich hue of evening had already set in as I cycled up the sloping road leading east from North Berwick. As the pyramid-shaped heights of North Berwick Law gradually receded behind me, the indomitable Bass Rock grew ever grander on the horizon ahead.
For so short a circuit, this day’s cycle contained many wonders. This time my aim was Seacliff Harbour, stopping en route to take in the many castles that flank the path.
Glimpses of Tantallon Castle’s towering curtain wall urged me along the A198 to the farm at Auldhame. There, a narrow paved track diverges from the road, and I waved a distant ‘hello’ to the horses grazing on either side as I followed the path into the trees.
Pressing forward I glanced left and caught a stunning sight – Tantallon Castle framed like a painting by a fence and trees to either side. Perfection. Just beyond is the ruin of Auldhame Castle, a favourite of renowned novelist and fellow castle lover Nigel Tranter. Very few even know it exists, and I always have this hidden place to myself when I visit.
I left the bike behind and followed a soft trail down to the beach, and as the sun set, it served a feast for the eyes and a perfect evening picnic spot.
Here sand and stone create an almost otherworldly landscape with great rocky protrusions standing in defiance of the waves. The harbour itself, carved with steam power out of one such feature, is so improbably tiny that I could only watch in awe as the crew of a small vessel navigated the slim entrance by pushing away from its walls with their hands. Sitting by the harbour, I watched the last light fall behind the cliffs and dapple the rolling waters with blues,
purples, and shimmering yellows. A crab anxiously paced the width of a tidal pool below, as the calls of gannets could be heard from their nesting ground on Bass Rock, a mile across the waves.
Each flicker of light seemed more vivid than the last, until the blues of twilight took over and I made my way back to my bike. Seacliff may be only 4.8km (three miles) from the pier at North Berwick, yet few places leave you with so great a sense of having been a world away.
A great escape, right on your doorstep.