ACCESS HOL AREAS
THREE wee drams on a whisky tasting tour are our first stop on a wheelchair-friendly trip along the lowland’s Aberlady and its surrounds.
The Glenkinchie distillery being a beacon of refurbished Victorian charm amid the wildflowers of a small, unassuming village like Pencaitland in East Lothian. We’ve travelled up from Staffordshire in my partner Paul’s motability Dacia and it’s been scenic and comfortable. I’m the only one drinking today, it’s 3pm and Paul is given a kit to take away for drivers.
We push on to to our destination, Craigielaw Golf Course’s The Lodge, a hotel which Paul has tenaciously studied for accessibility before booking. The additional research is spot on.
With a wide and flat entrance, and a long ramp to the restaurant and our super spacious room, there’s even a “paragolfer” sitting in the entrance for wheelchair users who play golf.
What’s nice about the room isn’t just accessibility – roll-in shower and space – but it hasn’t compromised on luxe. I feel happy here taking in Paul’s drams from Glenkinchie overlooking the coastal golf course outside. Tonight is Burns Night and
dinner here costs us a modest £52 for a shared starter of haggis bon bons and a main each. I opt for haggis, neeps and tatties, and Paul takes the Balmoral chicken. Full, we sleep well and are up early the next morning to explore.
We spend our morning at the Scottish Seabird Centre which has its own lift and where volunteers are super informative. There’s a cute cafe here that overlooks the coast and a gift shop where Paul buys an olive-green, tartan flat cap for £19.
A highlight is talking to the volunteers about birds and using an interactive camera to see seabirds live in their natural, nearby habitat.
For the afternoon, we take our new-found bird knowledge to Aberlady Bay to watch the sun set and see what birds we can spot.
There’s a free car park here that seems empty now but can get busier at peak times. We spy Guillemots, Eiders and Oystercatchers which the volunteer at the Scottish Seabird Centre had earlier told us are common at this time of year.
The day flies by like the birds we spot. It’s soon dinner time and we take a five-minute drive to the Bonnie Badger in Gullane which we discover has the world’s smallest (but functioning) ramp to the entrance. Paul wheels in and we take local lager while we wait to be seated in the Stables part of the restaurant. For starters we decide to share oysters, then it’s steak for Paul and venison loin for me.
It has a lovely ambiance here, a nice bustle of diners and cosy interiors in grey. Plus the doors are wide enough for Paul’s wheelchair.
On returning to the hotel, the paragolfer still sits in the foyer and Paul says he must one day take up golf so he can test it out. We found the Aberlady areas in the lowlands accessible, friendly and scenic with a side of haggis and a wee dram punctuating our stay along the coast nicely.