Abbey

Had a grand day out - D left at the usual sparrowfart, but I got a train to Dalmeny a bit later and joined our friends Rory and Claire who were up from the Borders to visit Inchcolm. We got the first sailing out and stayed on the island all day, being family and friends. There's a bit of residual metal fencing and a few little areas blocked off, but we were able to wander all over the abbey. The west end is of the island is still inaccessible, but we rambled about the east end a bit, going through the WWI tunnel and admiring the view from the gun emplacement (extra). The gulls were somewhat feisty, but seemed mostly to be concentrating on attacking each others fledglings - we watched amazing aerobatics and aerial warfare for some time.

We got back to Hawes Pier around 5 pm and had a bonus meet up with our favourite curlew blipper, Old Bat. We (minus OB) went in to the Hawes Inn for an early tea, before D and I got the train back and R & C headed back to the Borders. (They gave us a lift up the hill to Dalmeny, but we declined their kind offer of a lift back to Leith, not wanting to entangle them in the ongoing Edinburgh traffic nightmare).