Whitesands

Willie Bell

23 July 2024

Maureen, Jaqueline, Caroline, Moira, Denise, Pamela, Marion, Susan, Joyce, Isabel, Gordon, Harry, Danny, Mike, Bob, Alastair, Neil, Crawford, Richard and Willie plus Meg (Richard’s dog) met at Whitesands car park near Dunbar on a brightish summer morning.

That is after a few of us negotiating the geese happily crossing the road at their leisure!

We started with a team photo on the beautiful wide bay, with the Tarmac Cement works (built in 1973) blasting out smoke behind us, albeit the most efficient plant in Europe apparently.

Mike was our leader for the walk and we headed off along the beach then tackled some, low but slippy rocks at Barns Ness. The rock formation is a key geodiversity site with numerous pre-historic fossils. Mike even had a RIGS leaflet on the area and Denise followed up with a PDF in the WhatsApp group post walk – every walk is a school day with the Marauders..

We decided to take the slightly easier grass path as we headed south east towards the Barns Ness lighthouse, by which time the sun was out and the cloud had been blown out to sea from a gentle south west wind.

First lunch (well only lunch) was had on the beach, albeit some folk thought it was just a coffee break and others hadn’t brought any lunch.

Another wide bay took us past ancient limestone mine entrances and in full view of the massive Torness Nuclear Power Station (built in 1980-88). There was a bit of debate about visiting the Torness visitors centre which comes with “glowing” reviews, but we decided against it as Dunbar Garden Centre had been highly recommended for post walk coffee and cakes.

The path back to the Whitesands carpark was slightly shorter and avoided the beach and rocks covered in seaweed. By which time is was rather hot and sunny – a pleasant change after the abnormally wet summer. By this time the carpark was full and numerous people on the beach, plus some brave folk in swimming or paddle boarding.

A superb view looking north / west to the Bass Rock:

A head count was taken at the Whitesands carpark, and Gordon headed off first as his sons Harry and Danny were starving.

Dunbar garden centre did not disappoint, despite being very busy. Tea, coffee, cakes, scones, fish’n’chips etc were consumed.

We’ve had several beautiful coastal or river walks this year (Forth Estuary/North Sea at Dirleton, Dunbar and Cockburnspath plus The Water of Leith and The Almond River) and they never disappoint.

A superb walk on an emotional day to remember David Kaye our Marauders founder, and it was lovely to have Maureen, Jacqueline, Caroline, Gordon, Harry and Danny join us.

See you in August, when Crawford leads us up The Cheviot in Northumberland.

Willie