Coastwalk

Leith → Queensferry

Distance: 15.0 miles
Ascent: 91 metres
Duration: 5 hours 1 minute

Edinburgh's other fringe
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Head north from the Royal Mile and the Old Town; go a little distance beyond the New Town. It's a mile or so. The secret about Edinburgh which tourists seldom see is that it's a coastal town.

Leith docks is the easiest point to get to, so our walk started there. These docks are still worked, but investment has poured into the area in a way that's typical of other dockland areas. Now alongside the ships are tourist attractions, towering blocks of flats, cafe-culture-boulevards and government offices (as well as derelict land biding its time). Every so often real life intervenes, a prime example being the still working fishmarket at Newhaven Harbour.

West of Leith, Newhaven and Granton developments, we reached the beautiful parkland of Silverknowes, which is being rebranded as the Edinburgh Waterfront. Here we found ourselves walking against the tide of three hundred runners who congregate at the park every Saturday morning for an informal five kilometre Park Run.

The ferry across the River Almond at Cramond stopped service a decade or so ago, forcing us upstream for a mile and a half through a peaceful wooded riverside walk to the ancient bridge.

The remaining distance to Queensferry was through the Dalmeny Estate, a country house that is now used for corporate events. There's a cycle path that runs on roads through its grounds, but the coast walker will prefer the Shore Walk, clinging doggedly to the shoreline. Towards the eastern end, this walk passes Eagle Rock, which is reputed to be scarred with a Roman era carving of an Eagle, although Heritage Scotland's notice affixed to the rock comments with deadpan humour "whether it is an eagle or whether it is even Roman is uncertain". (Emma thought it looked more like a penguin.)

Throughout the walk we have caught sight of our destination: the Forth Bridge. It's impossible to not stop and photograph this modern wonder at regular intervals, and here too we met many locals who were drawn out for a gentle walk now that Spring has finally sprung.

Away from the Castle, beyond the Old and New Towns, here on the Fringes of the city, Edinburgh comes out to play.