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I tried posting this as one big post yesterday but it didn't post so I am breaking it up in the hope that works
TLDR - a few days riding round the lammertmuirs and camping
Checking the weather forecast it was good for the following week so as I was already pondering a wee trip when a pal asked me if I wanted to join them camped up on the east coast south of dunbar I said yes then started looking at maps. A relatively easy two days to get there with a night wild camped up in the lammermuirs. We have a plan forming.
I set off from leith and east along the coast to Musselburgh the up the hill to the pencaitland railway following that to the end and on to Gifford. From Gifford I decided on the road climb intending to look for a couple of stone circles near the top and a potential campsite. I found the stones OK but a trifle underwhelming and no water to camp there. OK on to plan B – down to the Whiteadder reservoir when I found a great spot. 30 odd miles with well over a thousand feet of climbing
Day 2 woke up to mist but the sun soon broke thru. Headed off down the road to the next bridge then a lovely off road section to Abbey St Bathans Wee roads over to the coast to meet my pals 25 ish miles. Plenty of climbing but ended up at sea level,
Day 3 with a slight hangover set off south westish. Back roads to Longformacus then pick up the Southern upland way. Lovely campspot a mile or two from the end of the road.
Day 4 Beautiful sunny day. Lovely offroad section over the top of Twin law then after the main descent cut off onto the road and into lauder. A fine pub lunch in Lauder then the campsite seemed like a fine Idea. 20 ish miles with a fair old climb. Phoned a pal in Peebles to see if they were in the next night and they where so thats the next bit of plan falling into place. Now to pick a route
Day 5 Back road over to Melrose then pick up the Tweed route all the way to Peebles. Really nice old railway along the valley bottom. 35 miles to my pals with once more plenty of climbing. Beer O'clock
Day 6
I'd had my eye on the old drove road north of Peebles for a while so took that. The only climb of the whole trip I had to walk a lot of. Another lovely sunny day and another day of headwinds – fortunately not much tho I picked up the old road at Eddlestone and followed that which is a lovely route thru to leadburn then road down to Penicuik.
Fed up of roads I picked up the old railway there that runs towards Dalkeith, down to Sherrifhall and back road home. 35 plus miles and too much climbing!
Fab week out. Really cleared the head. Some really nice gravel / wandering around the scenery biking, a catch up with pals
Looks ace
Looks fab teej
Lovely 😍👏
Lovely 👍🏻
Nice area to explore by bike. I didn't see that many bikers but did have a look round Melrose, Selkirk, Kelso and Jedburgh. The four abbey cycle route looked like a nice way to see the area.
4 Abbeys is a nice road ride.
you will have pretty much cycled past my house on day 5.
Lovely stuff
Nice on TJ, looks lovely.
Also jealous to see someone with a BoB, I have a hankering to take one out again, I think just for simplicity rather than strapping/bolting things to my lovely new paintwork! 😎
That looks wonderful. Do you have an iron stomach or some sort of water purifying set up?
Neither. Just a bit of care where I get water from.
Couple of weeks ago we did a Herring roads loop from Lauder so did some of the same trails. There'd been a lot of rain before and some during so there were a lot of puddles. Also if you're going to take your shoes and socks off for a river crossing you might want to check if there's another one just round the corner.
Looks lovely!
Looks great. I did the Rebellion Way in Norfolk a few weeks back with my 12 year old son. It was great, not got scenery like Scotland but 5 days on the bikes and camping with my boy was brilliant.
Any day out on a bike is good. A good one is fabulous. Wandering around the scenery and camping just makes it better still
Cracking adventure TJ.
👍
Brilliant photos and ride. I miss living in Scotland and Leith was home for most of that time. Your photos TJ brought back some good memories.
I like the fact that in every photo there are no people whatsoever. I hop it was the case in reality
It's usually very quiet in the Lammermuir Hills. A lot of gravel and few takers. Usually I just encounter estate staff (which is still sometimes awkward).
I did an overnighter from tweedbank to Dunbar via SUW and Herring Road. Exposed me as the overweight unexpressed lardy that I am. I really struggled. Loaded bike damn near ended me.
Only people I saw after getting off the train were in Lauder and a few folks camping in a motor home near whiteadder.
Well done to you.
Low gears is the secret. And regular picnics
Nice write up, thanks for sharing.
I've done a few rides over the last couple of years which have followed (from your description) a similar route to yours. There's some great natural riding around East Lothian.
Any chance of a route gpx? Or links to your strava/komoot?
I need to explore the Lammermuirs. You've reminded/inspired me. Cracking photos.
Any chance of a route gpx? Or links to your strava/komoot?
I don't have any such thing. Sorry. You should be able to work it out from map amd descriptions 🙂
a lot of the lammermuirs are grouse farm and wind farm but still some riding worth having in places