Edinburgh; Saturday, 29 February, 2020

I had a decent nights sleep, but was still awake before 8am, so, after a leisurely shower, I headed down for breakfast and then out to the tram stop to pick up the tram a couple of stops round to Edinburgh Gateway station. There I changed onto the regular train and went one stop onto Dalmeny.

Dalmeny is at the southern end of the Forth Rail Bridge and that was the main reason for heading here this morning. On leaving the station I followed the footpath that runs next to the railway line down to the start of the bridge and then underneath it and down a flight of stairs to river level in South Queensferry.

I’d booked onto the 11am sailing of the Forth Boat Tours Blackness Castle and Three Bridges tour which leaves from the Hawes Pier right next to the rail bridge.

The tour lasted about 90 minutes during which we sailed under all three of the crossings and a bit further upstream up the Forth to Blackness Castle. The tour also included a cream tea – the hot tea being particularly welcome with the biting February wind.

Back at the landing stage I retraced my steps and headed back into the city centre, getting off at Waverley where I headed up onto the North Bridge to pick up the bus to go out the opposite side of town, down towards the Infirmary and the 14th Century Craigmillar castle.

The castle is reckoned to be one of the finest examples of a medieval Scottish castle, with much of the building still in tact. I spent quite a bit of time looking round the castle, and taking in the views from the roof from where you can see the whole of the centre of Edinburgh as well as Arthurs Seat and the Firth of Forth. As the weather was clear it was even possible to clearly see Bass Rock out beyond North Berwick and pretty much as the sea.

I spent so long looking round the castle that the custodian was actually starting to make their rounds to lock the building up as I was leaving. I headed back down to the bus stop and picked up the bus into town, where I changed onto the tram and headed back to the hotel to freshen up.

I got back to the hotel a little after 5pm and was intending on just freshening up before heading out for dinner, but whilst I was there the weather – which had been beautiful for the whole day – suddenly took a turn for the worse as the first hits of the latest weekend storm to hit the UK made themselves felt with the wind whistling round the building and the rain hammering on the windows.

I decided, based on the weather, that actually the hotel restaurant was perfectly acceptable possessing the key selling point of not requiring to get wet or cold to get to.

After dinner I had a nightcap in the bar before turning in for the night – listening to the sound of the storm making me feel even more cosy in my warm bed.