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.
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.
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.
There
are plans for this area to be landscaped to extend the wildlife haven that has
already been created.
The
Skulferatu that accompanied me today was left by a pipe sticking out of the
compacted ash.
(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
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