"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own"   Sri Chinmoy

Cramond Island Run - May 2024 - Edinburgh

I was up in Silverknowes, Edinburgh, to help at the Scottish 5k Championships (a Sri Chimoy Marathon Team production, and a very impressive race) but throughout the setup and takedown of the race my eyes were drawn again and again to the tidal Cramond Island and its causeway. The day after the race was not too full - just a trip into Edinburgh to see Janaka's Citadel Books and then the statue of Sri Chinmoy at Saughton - so I had no trouble fitting in a run over to the island. Low Tide was just before 6am so I had until 8 to get out and back without needing to wade!

The jog down to the esplanade was a quiet one - not a single vehicle and (thanks to the early start) barely even a dog walker out on a cool, drizzly morning. The island looked serene and deserted out in the firth. I ran along the esplanade heading towards the causeway - this was a section of the previous night's course where Sri Chinmoy had been running many years ago, so a special place for that reason too - and here I saw a couple of cyclists and one person out for a morning walk. From a distance, the causeway is barely visible but the huge stone Pylons, as they are known, can be seen from miles away and are a pretty strange sight. Apparently built to stop torpedo boats getting into the firth in WWII, they have an ancient look to them, almost megalithic or henge-like. Close up, you can see they are concrete, once all cast from the same mould no doubt, but now unique thanks to the relentless effects of half a century and more of weathering.

I was in road shoes and the crossing of the causeway meant my feet were soaked almost instantly, but the drizzle was so fine and the wind so light that I was fine in a gilet and my waterproof jacket stayed tucked in around the belt of my bumbag and didn't need to go on. I was running towards a saltire painted on an old concrete shed, through the sodden, salty air, for around 1k before I was back on dry land. Here there was a choice of running around to the left of the island on a stony foreshore or heading inland, so I took the path up into the interior of the tiny island to have an explore. There were bluebells and gorse, a mix of trees in the wild and muddy wood, and no human life except for me. There were more reminders of the war at the seaward side, old gun emplacements apparently and the remains of a few brick/concrete structures, and plenty of thin trails (some muddy, some actually paved) to jog around. I came back on the stony beach and the whole circuit only took a few minutes.

Back over the shoe-soaking causeway, I decided to make a loop of it, heading past the tiny village of Cramond with boats clustered in the river mouth around an old quayside, then inland on the River Almond walkway past the Cramond falls. This riverside path was a runner's dream - soft but firm and flat underfoot at first, then up steps through a woodland, all the while alongside a beautifully wild river with little weirs and rapids. I kept going until I reached the road, by this beautiful stone bridge on the wider, calmer section of the river, then used my phone to find a way back through the fields alongside Lauriston Castle and the paths through Lauriston Farm.

All in, that was a solid 8-miles of trails and paths, a few roads, all gloriously new and unfamiliar. It's a real joy for the mind to run in different places and I need to make the effort to do it more!

 
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