Skulferatu #24 - SEPA Monitoring Site, River Almond, Craighall, Edinburgh

 

On an unseasonably sunny day I went for a stroll along the River Almond. The Almond runs from Hirst Hill in Lanarkshire to its exit into the Firth of Forth at Cramond.  The river is twenty-eight miles long and winds its way through West Lothian and round the outskirts of Edinburgh.  The name of the river comes from the old Celtic word Amon, which means river.  So, the name of the river is basically River River.

 

I joined the Almond at its exit into the sea at Cramond and walked along the riverbank up the path to the Old Cramond Brig (bridge).  On crossing that, I cut off down the path under the new bridge that carries the traffic speeding along the A90.  The noise from the traffic is a continuous thunderous rumble and as I walked through the nearby woods, I could just make out some birdsong, which made me wonder how the birds can possibly communicate above all that noise.  Maybe they just sing a bit louder.

 

Old Cramond Brig

 

Snowdrops on the riverbank

An old drainage tunnel, draining water from nearby fields into the River Almond

 

Once under and past the new bridge the river path winds on for miles and miles.  One day I will walk, or cycle, as far as the path carries me, but not today.

 

A view of the River Almond

 

Today I walked to the SEPA Monitoring Site on the Almond at Craighall.  SEPA, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, has 392 sites around Scotland that monitor water levels.  The information from these sites helps in flood management, amongst other things. 

 

SEPA Monitoring Site, as seen from the riverbank

 

SEPA Monitoring Site, as seen from riverside

 

The monitoring site at Craighall is a rather unimpressive, purely functional, brick building.  Its walls are cracked and pitted with holes and it is heavily graffitied on the wall facing the path.  At its side there is a set of rather worn steps and what looks like a lovely, shiny ruler.  This ruler is the basic, but effective tool for measuring the level of the river.  At the time of my trip out there the level was just under 50 centimetres.  According to the River Levels UK website the usual range of the level of the Almond is between 0.21 and 1.92 metres, though it reached 3.76 metres in April 2000…a particularly wet year I have no recollection of.  I must have spent most of it in the pub, to keep out of the rain.

 

Measure at side of building showing water levels

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on today’s walk in one of the many little holes in the wall of the monitoring station, facing out onto the River Almond.

 

Skulferatu #24

Skulferatu #24 in a hollow in the wall of the Monitoring Station

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #24

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 55.962894

Longitude -3.338132

 

Skulferatu #23 - West Breakwater Lighthouse and Signal Tower, Leith Docks, Edinburgh

 

West Breakwater Lighthouse

 

This abandoned and now derelict lighthouse sits on a concrete platform at the West Breakwater of Leith Docks.  It was built in the 1950s and on the flat roof there was a massive semaphore device for signalling to ships out in the Forth.  The building fell out of use due to advances in technology and changes in shipping routes.  Today it is derelict and empty, weather battered and stripped bare. It is usually decorated with graffiti, though every so often the council come along and whitewash the building and resecure the fence around it. 

 

Walkway to West Breakwater Lighthouse

The lighthouse is now derelict and abandoned

 

Graffiti on the abandoned lighthouse

The lighthouse tower

 

 

Concrete support pillars underneath the lighthouse

 

I’ve always thought the lighthouse is a building that could have a second life as something…maybe a trendy café or restaurant.  However, given the practical difficulties and costs involved in this sort of transformation, it will probably just crumble away until one day the bulldozers come in and knock it down.

 

I left a Skulferatu under the lighthouse, at the back of the space created by the supporting pillars.

 

Skulferatu #23

Skulferatu #23 at West Breakwater Lighthouse

 

TomTom Map showing location of Skulferatu #23

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

Latitude 55.988837

Longitude -3.185501

 

Skulferatu #22 - Ash Disposal Area, Levenhall, Musselburgh, East Lothian

 

In the summer I often cycle from Edinburgh to North Berwick.  Rather than take the roads all the way there I tend to veer off and take the more scenic route along the John Muir Way.  It is more relaxing and offers up lots of great views around the coast and across the Forth over to Fife.

 

Just outside Musselburgh, at the back of the racecourse, the route of the John Muir Way takes you through the Ash Disposal Areas or Ash Lagoons, as they are also known.  These were created by the disposal of pulverised fuel ash from the coal fired power station that was at Cockenzie.  This power station was operational from 1967 until 2013, when it was decommissioned.  It was demolished in 2015.  

 

A view of Cockenzie Power Station from Prestonpans

Demolition of power station chimneys in 2015

 

Some of the Ash Lagoons have been restored and landscaped as wildlife areas, with pools of water created to attract wading birds.  The one that always gets my attention though is yet to be landscaped.  It was, until a few years ago, a grey, crumbly looking mound.  On hot and windy summer days I would cycle past and my eyes would sting in the fine, grey dust that blew off from it.  On rainy days my bike and my legs would be coated with a slimy grey mud.  Then a few years ago some planting took place and there was a whole summer when the lagoon bloomed with hundreds of thousands of poppies.  Now it has returned to a desolate look, though a desolate look with various grasses and scrub.

 

Silver Birch tree and pipes in the Ash Lagoon

 

A view over the Ash Lagoon to Prestongrange

 

Looking out over the Forth

 

Poles around part of Ash Lagoon

Left over apparatus rusting away

 

View over Forth to Fife

Remains of sign that use to warn against walking over the mound of ash

 

Round the top and at the edges of this mound of ash there runs a path.  There used to be signs all round warning people not to walk over the ash as it was dangerous and unstable.  These are now so rusted and faded that they are unreadable.  Lots of people walk over the ash now, but I think it was compacted and made safe…though I may be wrong about that.  If one day it swallows up a walker or two, then we’ll all know it wasn’t safe and be thankful it wasn’t us.

 

Poles and pipe at side of the Ash Lagoon

 

View over grass and industrial remnants in the Ash Lagoon

 

View over Ash Lagoon with Arthur’s Seat in the distance

 

There are plans for this area to be landscaped to extend the wildlife haven that has already been created. 

 

Pipe in the centre of the Ash Lagoon

 

The Skulferatu that accompanied me today was left by a pipe sticking out of the compacted ash.

 

Skulferatu #22

 

Skulferatu #22 by pipe in Ash Lagoon

 

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #22

(Map shows Lagoon as being an area of water – it is not)

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

Latitude 55.950414

Longitude -3.014697

 

Skulferatu #21 - Stink Vent, St Mark's Park, Water of Leith, Edinburgh

On a day of sunshine and snowstorms I went for a walk along the Water of Leith and the railway paths that run around it.  On my way back I passed through St Mark’s Park and along the path under the old railway there.  This brought me out into a rather picturesque area near a weir and what appears to be an old, industrial era chimney standing on its own.

 

Tunnel from pathway at St Mark’s Park leading to Water of Leith

 

The Water of Leith

Not a chimney, but a stink vent

This chimney is not at what it first seems.  Look around it.  There are no openings at the bottom where one would expect to see space for a fire to burn or where pipes were once connected.  That is because this chimney is not in fact a chimney.  It is a sewage vent or a stink vent.  It is part of the 1864 interceptor sewer that was built to connect to earlier sewage systems in Edinburgh and carry raw sewage out into the River Forth.  It carried on doing this until the 1970s when the Seafield Waste Water Treatment Works was built.

 

The stink vent was an important part of the sewage system as it acted as a safety valve and released the noxious and inflammable sewer gases that would build up in the system.  It was built nice and high so that the wind would carry off any obnoxious smells.

The stink vent

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on today’s walk in a tree not far from the stink vent and with a nice view of the Water of Leith.

 

Skulferatu #21

 

Skulferatu #21 in tree near to stink vent and Water of Leith

 

Google Map showing location of Skulferatu #21

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

Latitude 55.968462

Longitude -3.189978