River Tyne, Haddington

There's overnight rain, and the sun is behind the clouds. First Sunday of the month is the Spokes Ride. As the weather had been so nice, it is a picnic ride. There are on the ride, which isn't too bad as there are a number of other cycling events on. There is some very light rain as we start off from the Usher Hall, through the Meadows.

We head on to the Innocent Railway path to Brunstane, then down Milton Rd and Edinburgh Rd to Musselburgh. There's an easy cruise along the coast through Prestonpans, Cockenzie and Port Seton. At Longniddry, we turn inland, up to Main St, then onto the B6363 for a short while, before turning left on to a quiet country road.

This quiet country road climbs slowly up Bangly Hill, and we avoid the steeper Bangly Brae by not turning left, but up to Huntington t-junction, where we take a left turn up to the top of the Hill to the A6137. Weturn right, and head downhill to Haddington, along Court St and Market St to the supermarket for people who didn't bring lunch to get something.

Then down to the banks of the River Tyne. The blip shows the old bridge  and The Waterside Inn. There are picnic tables here, which just require a wipe down to remove the small amount of moisture on the benches.

After lunch, we carry on south along Sidegate and Poldrate and on to the B6369 to the bottom of Cockles Brae, where we turn left to head towards Garvald. A lovely quiet road that climbs towards the highpoint on the ride. The skylarks are singing loudly as we reach the B6370.

We turn right to head up Blindwell Brae, then down the hill to the B6355, where we turn right agian and down to Gifford. We have an early afternoon tea at the Lantern Rouge café.

then its on to East Saltoun, West Saltoun, passing Glenkinchie Distillery to the Humbie road, B6371. We turn right to head down to the Pencaitlnd Road A6093, turn left then right up Fordel Mains. This road seems to have suffered from heavy rain as there is a lot of gravel on the road. 

Then it up and down the A6124 to Cowpits Rd. From there we follow National Cycle Route 1 along the River Esk, through Monktonhall and Newcraighall back to Brunstane. Then its on to the Innocent Railway path back in to Edinburgh.

The ride ends at the rather nice Victor Hugo's café. Alright, more cake and coffee it is then.

The whole route can be seen at Relive here.