[March 12-22, 2026; Edinburgh, Kinross and Cockburnspath, Scotland Trip]

[March, 12, 2026; Newark Airport] I flew out of Newark Liberty Airport in the evening, taking with me bagels purchased from Marty's in Orangeburg, New York, and whipped cream cheese, too. My plane was a bit delayed at takeoff, as its door initially did not properly shut. But once Maintenance fixed it, my flight was problem-free.

[March 13, 2026; Edinburgh Airport] I landed at Edinburgh Airport in early morning, took the Tram to the MacDonald Road stop and walked to Katie Hood’s and Hannah’s Albert Street apartment. I’m getting pretty comfortable with this route. Dallas, who travelled separately from Germany, was already there. I was pretty spaced out, as I got no sleep on the plane, and went right to sleep.

[Cockburnspath, Scotland] In the mid-afternoon, we drove to Katie’s patents house in Hannah's rental car. Their house, called The Corn Barn is in Cockburnspath, a small town about thirty miles east of Edinburgh. We passed a cement plant, the Torness nuclear power station and a wind farm with fifty or more turbines. The area around Cockburnspath consists of rolling hills with fields and is adjacent to sea cliffs overlooking the North Sea. The Corn Barn is a refurbished farm building made of sandstone blocks and is surrounded by a garden full of ornamental trees and flowers. Several Rosemary Bushes were in bloom. They reminded me of several similar bushes that Dallas and I had at our Corvallis, Oregon house back in the 1980’s. A treehouse that Katie helped build is in the side yard and a greenhouse and picnic area is on a terrace on the hillside below the house.

[Cove Harbor] Just before sunset, Katie, her parents Johnny and Pauline Hood, Hannah, Hannah’s dog Estel and I walked down to Cove Harbor. The path took us first through a field and then down the sea cliff via a set of switchbacks and a tunnel cut through the headland. The rocks of the sea cliff are shallowly-dipping sandstones and shales. Low hogbacks extending into the sea make a series of stripes along the shore. The Gorse bushes are in bloom, their yellow flowers brightly lit by the sun. The harbor is a rectangular area, set off from the sea by a stout sea wall. We climbed one of the walls for the view, which was terrific, especially to the east, towards and arch and spire below the sea cliff. However, we found the stairs a bit treacherous. Estel, especially, had trouble traversing them. The tide was low, allowing us to walk around the beach on the inland side of the harbor. Pauline found a conglomerate concretion that had formed when iron oxide cemented pebbles. I visited a small sea cave that the waves had carved into the cliffs. It afforded a good place to inspect the cross bedded sandstones. Most of the sandstone was reddish in color, though the reducing environment near shale layers had bleached some of it white. On the way back, we took a short detour to visit the Cove Fisherman Memorial, a bronze sculpture commemorating the death of 189 fishermen during the great storm of October 14, 1881. [1:30]

[March 14, 2026; Berwickshire Coastal Path] Dallas, Katie Hood, her father Johnny Hood and I hiked along the top of the sea cliff from the Fast Castle parking lot to the town of St. Abbs. The day is sunny, with a bit of a breeze. The path crosses rolling hills that are being actively farmed, with many fields surrounded with gated wooden fences, punctuated by Gorse thickets and occasional trees. We saw a few wild animals, and especially pheasant, hare and crow, and many domesticated animals, including chickens, Belted Galloway cows and sheep (including newborn lambs). Broadly, the land we traversed forms three hills separated by two deep valleys, though there were many smaller-scale ups and downs, too. The stream at the western valley was spanned by an old, stone arch bridge, and the eastern one by a modern wooden footbridge. Views of the sea cliffs are spectacular, especially in the vicinity of St. Abbs Head, which has several large tooth-shaped stacks. The trail did not take us out onto the Head itself, but rather crossed a pasture south of it and the long, narrow lake called Mire Loch. The path took us to Borders Pottery on the north edge of St. Abbs, where there is a café and public restrooms. After a brief stop, we continued on down to the harbor, which, like Cove Harbor, has a massive sea wall enclosing a rectangular patch of calm water. [3:40]

[Ebbcarrs Café, St. Abbs] We met Katie’s mother, Pauline Hood and Estel at Ebbcarrs Café for lunch. We sat at a picnic table in the courtyard adjacent to the café which was well sheltered from the wind. Johnny and I had Cullen Skink Chowder (a fish chowder made from Haddock, not the skink lizard) and Ridge Pale Ale (which according to the label on the bottle is named after the Mid-Atlantic Ridge).

[St. Abbs Harbor] After lunch, I took a brief walk around the harbor with Estel, admiring the brightly painted fishing boats and the rocks and sea stacks to the south. [0:10]

[March 15, 2026; Hutton Unconformity at Siccar Point] Dallas, Hannah, Hannah’s dog Estel and I visited Siccar Point, site of the stratigraphic unconformity that was instrumental in the development of the geological Theory of Uniformitarianism by geologist James Hutton in 1788. We walked a path than ran between the cliff edge and a field, passing the ruins of St. Helen’s Chapel. The day was partly cloudy, with occasional windblown light rain. We hiked the level part of the trail, but stopped just short of when it plunged steeply downhill to the sea, for the wet grass seemed too treacherous. We could see the unconformity in the rock strata that composed the cliff, with steeply-dipping brown sandstone layers below and horizontal, somewhat redder sandstone layers above. We sat for a while in the wet grass, admiring the view. [0:30].

[Fast Castle] We parked at the same lot as yesterday, by rolling farmland high above the sea. We then took a footpath, first through woods, then across fields, and finally steeply and steadily downhill toward the sea. Some sections of the downgrade were edged by Gorse, others by Heather – though the latter was not yet in bloom. Finally, we reached a narrow footbridge connecting the mainland to a flat–topped stack that was the “castle” – really an old coastal fortification. The stonework, or at least the part of it at eye level, is minimal and in poor condition. The sky had cleared from earlier in the morning, with moments of bright sun. We sat atop the stack enjoying the view of sea and cliffs. We then headed back. Estel needed to be carried in one spot down a tilting, three-foot-high rock slab (a fault surface with slickensides) at the end of the footbridge. We then headed back up the hill. The weather changed abruptly as a hailstorm passed. I put on my balaclava to protect my face. A beautiful rainbow provided some compensation. [1:30]

[The Volunteer Arms Restaurant, Dunbar] On drive back to Edinburgh, Hannah, Dallas and I stopped at The Volunteer Arms Restaurant, on Victoria Street by the harbor in the town of Dunbar.  I had fish and chips. After lunch, I took a brief walk around the harbor, which like others we have visited, is a patch of calm water surrounded by massive sea walls. A ruined tower stands above one end of the harbor.

[Stainsbury Supermarket] On the way back, we stopped to resupply at the big Stainsbury Supermarket in the Meadowbank Shopping Park in Edinburgh.

[Albert Street, Edinburgh] Hannah cooked us an excellent dinner of Ravioli at the Albert Street apartment.

[March 16, 2026; Calton Hill, Edinburgh] Dallas, Estel and I walked to Calton Hill Park. This is a city park, built atop a high basaltic hill, hosting trees and flowers but also many monuments and other structures. One ascends the bottom of the hill via a steep staircase and then takes somewhat shallower pedestrian paths to the summit. There stands the City Observatory (which though once an astronomical observatory is now an art gallery called the Collective), the National Monument of Scotland (a partial reproduction of the Parthenon) and the tall Nelson Tower. Several glacial boulders also decorate the summit, including one with striae. We sat at a bench near the Parthenon, gazing south out across the city. We then strolled over to a north-facing vantage where we had an excellent view of the Firth of Forth (bay or fjord). A big windfarm tender ship, Seaway 7, was visible in the Firth. Estel had a hard time descending the stairs as we were leaving, even with me leading her carefully.

[Milton Street, Edinburgh] In the late afternoon, we walked over to our apartment, rented from one of Hannah’s friends, Catriona. It is at 27 Milton Street, immediately adjacent to Hollyrood Park. It is very artistically decorated, with many paintings and two “sculptures”, one of a tree and the other of a jellyfish or medusa. Located on the third floor, getting up to it is a sixty-step huff!

[Albert Street, Edinburgh] After walking back to the Albert Street apartment, and after a top at the Scotmid grocery store on Easter Road, we had a steak dinner with Hannah and Estel. Then back to Catriona’s apartment and up the sixty steps.

[March 17, Hollyrood Park, Edinburgh] Dallas and I hiked in Hollyrood Park, a very large open tract of hilly land in Edinburgh, vegetated by grass and bushes, but few trees. Very conveniently, it can be accessed via a footpath that begins at the end of Milton Street. Like Calton Park and Edinburg Castle, its high elevation is attributable to the erosion resistant basaltic rock that outcrops there. The day is clear and very windy. We first visited St Anthony's Chapel Ruins, which are on a hillside overlooking St Margaret’s Loch (lake). Only the northern wall of this small stone building is intact. We then ascended Arthur’s seat, the highest peak in the park, while Magpies (a largish bird in the Crow family) looked on. I spotted patched of glacial striae on the basaltic bedrock. The wind was really roaring at the summit, stronger even than when Dallas and I climbed it in 2019. Today, Dallas was content to turn back a little short of the summit, while I pushed on, eventually pulling myself up onto the concrete monument at the top. The view is fabulous, though not noticeably different than at any one of several slightly lower terraces, but rather marred by the necessity of hanging on for dear life. Meeting up one again with Dallas, we descent to Dunsapie Loch (lake). This impoundment, with an earth-fill dam on its northern shore, has a gorgeous setting, below a cliff of basalt. I sat for a while on a stone at the water’s edge, while Ducks and Swans paddled by me - looking for handouts but getting none. We then walked the pedestrian path along the edge of Queen’s Drive back past St Margaret’s Loch. Pussywillow and Coltsfoot bloomed along it shore. Finally, we cut across a wide grassy field, back to Milton Street and the 6sixty steps. [2:15]

[London Road Gardens, Edinburgh]. Later in the afternoon, Dallas and I waked toward the Bus Station to reconnoiter tomorrow’s route. Much of the way was though London Road Gardens, a long and narrow park that parallels the road by that name. It is full of Daffodils, Snow Whites and other Spring flowers. We went as far as the Sherlock Holmes statue in Picardy Square, which we considered close enough to, though not quite in sight of, the Bus Station. Another sixty steps! [1:00].

[March 18, 2026; London Road Park, Edinburgh] In the morning, Dallas and I walked to the Bus Station, some of the way which was through London Road Park. The day is clear and much less windy than yesterday. We purchase round-trip tickets and board the bus to Kinross, which takes about an hour.

[Kinross] The bus takes us to the Park and Ride lot on the outskirts of the town of Kinross. The bus stop is right next to the big Stainsbury supermarket, so we make a brief stop to buy a few items for dinner, which I stash in my daypack. We then walk Station Road through the town. Heather is blooming near the supermarket and many fruit trees are in bloom along Station Road. We stop for coffee at Unorthodoxed Roasters, on High Street in Kinross. I have a latte and a slice of red velvet cake, as Dallas and I watch the large and somewhat exotic coffee roasting machine do it thing. 0:30.

[Kirkgate Park, Kinross] We then walk to Kirkgate Park, on the shore of Loch Leven. The park is essentially a big picnic area, with broad grassy fields and benches. The view south across the Loch is pleasant, if a bit hazy, with high rolling hills in the distance. 0:30.

[Loch Levin Heritage Trail] We join the Loch Levin Heritage Trail, and take it north along the lakeshore. It passes a large mansion and a cemetery, and then winds through marshy areas and woodlands. We have a great view of Lochleven Castle, on an island in the middle of the loch, and the hills on the east side of the lake, for the haze is less pronounced in that direction. The castle is now ruined, but is famous for having imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots in the mid-Sixteenth Century. We have a picnic lunch at a bench near a bird blind. We then head back the way we came, but continue on the Heritage Trail past Kirkgate Park, to the bridge over South Queich (stream) and the ferry terminal that provides access to the Castle (but only starting April 1). Lesser Celandine is blooming along the trail. It is considered invasive in New York; I don’t know its status in Scotland. 1:30.

[Kinross] We stop in the Kinross town center on our way back to the Park and Ride. I sat in the sun at a bench along High Street, near the Crosswell Fountain, a substantial stone structure, topped by gargoyles. Sadly, it no longer provides any water. After walking back along Station Road, we took the M90 bus back to the Edinburgh Bus Station.

[London Road Park, Edinburgh] We walked through London Road Park on our way back to Catriona’s Milton Street apartment. Those sixty steps again!

[March 19, 2026; Hollyrood Park, Edinburgh] It’s another clear day, and not as windy as our trip here two days ago. We sighted several Pheasants and Wood Pigeons as we walked eastward on a trail that parallels Queens Drive, below the impressively steep basaltic cliffs of Salisbury Crags. Actually, though, this cliff, though originally a hogback, has been modified and steepened by quarrying. The hills of the park are separated by a prominent north-sought oriented valley. Upon reaching it, we doubled back and hiked up onto the Crag. This maneuver proved tricky, for choosing which of several subparallel tracks ascend the northern, grassy, less steep side of the Crags is tricky, for the footing on some of them is perilous. After several false starts, we found one that we could manage and hiked up to the cliff edge. The views - west across the cliff edge towards the city and Edinburg Castle; east across the valley to the other hills, including Arthur’s seat; down towards Hunter’s Bog in the valley below; and north, up the axis of the valley to St. Margaret’s Loch (lake) and the Firth of Forth, beyond – are all terrific, for the air is very clear today. A whole crowd of people are atop Arthurs Seat, today. The basalt hogbacks on the opposite side of the valley are very dramatically lit by the sun. Way out in the Firth of Forth we see two big ships – maybe Seaway 7’s – carrying yellow wind turbine platforms. We walk the edge of the Crag northward and then descend into a raving with outcrops of sandstone. Some slabs have ripple marks. We spot a Weasel scurrying across the path. We have lunch sitting on a sandstone slab in the ravine, out of the wind. We then continue north, passing below St Anthony's Chapel Ruins before exiting the park. Then the sixty steps.

[Albert Street, Edinburgh] We have dinner with Katie and Hannah at the Albert St apartment, eating fish sent to us by our Icelandic friend Bryndís Brandsdóttir. Then we head back to Catriona’s Milton Street apartment and those sixty steps.

[March 20, 2026; Albert Street, Edinburgh] We packed up and checked out of Catriona’s Milton Street apartment and wheeled our bags down to Katie’s apartment on Albert Street. We then walked past Picardy Place to the bus stop on Broughton Street at York Place. We boarded the Number 8 bus and took it to the Royal Botanic Garden, which is about a mile away.

[Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh] The Royal Botanic Garden is a collection of well-tended formal gardens on a seventy-acre site in the Inverleith section of Edinburgh, about a mile north of the city center. Spring has come early to Scotland and the gardens are full of flowers, including spring-flowering bulbs such as Narcissus, ephemerals such as Anemone and Hepatica, bushes such as Rhododendron and trees such a Cherry. As it was about noon, we had lunch at a picnic table beside a Cherry Tree, buying lattes and cakes from a kiosk. We then toured the garden. We first walked around the stream that flows through the Rock Garden, cascading down a little hill. It may artificial, in sense of its water being continuously recycled by pumping. A pair of Mallard Ducks were paddling around in it. We smiled when we came across a ground hugging plant labeled Dryas octopetala with a small plaque. Its pollen is the marker for the Younger Dryas climate fluctuation, a thousand-year-long cold snap that occurred at the beginning of the Holocene. It was not blooming today. We then headed over to the Pond, which though small, hosted much interesting pond-side flowers, a surprising number of birds, including Grey Heron and Common Moorhen and schools of very small fish. I bought another latte from kiosk and sipped it as we watched the antics of the birds. Finally, we toured the Woodland Garden, which has native plants including Gorse, as well as the Dry Stone Seat, a small folly (fake ruin) next to a tiny pond. 2:15.

[Albert Street, Edinburgh] We reversed our route and took the Number 8 bus back up Broughton Street to the Picardy Place area and then walked the rest of the way back to Albert Street. We then packed up for a second trip to The Corn Barn.

[The Range, 25 Milton Link, Edinburgh] I had been hoping to buy some Blueberry bushes for Johnny and Pauline Hood and, after some research, determined that they could be purchased at the garden center of a big box store called the The Range. So we detoured there on our way to Cockburnspath. We were dismayed to see a lost and obviously ill dog (with red eyes) wandering around the parking lot. Katie asked the store security to call Animal Control. Afterward, we were able to buy four pots of Blueberries, each of a different variety. I also bought a small Elephant statue - plastic, but well manufactured – for Johnny Hood, to add to his enormous collection of Elephant sculptures.

[Cockburnspath, Scotland] Katie took Dallas, Estel and me on a walk from The Corn Barn to the central part of the small town of Cockburnspath. We took a path that led across fields, spotting several Hares, and beneath the railway and A1 Highway via tunnels. We inspected several buildings, including The Old Smiddy (now a pizzeria), the Bowling Club (the only place where one can still buy a beer) and the Village Hall and nearby Community Shop (where Johnny volunteers). On the way back, we visited a graveyard and read the inscription on two grave makers of Katie's ancestors:

In memory of Sergei Nalbandov, Film Producer, Born Moscow 1895, Died Rodmell 1971, Dear husband of Grace Hood or Nalbandova, Born, Cockburnspath 1901, Died Gullane 1992.

In memory of Lt. Cdr. Thomas Hood, OBE RNR, Master mariner and farmer, Townhead, Born Cockburnspath 1905, Died Edinburgh 1998, Dear husband of Janet MacArthur, born Haywards Heath 1913, Died Edinburgh 2006.

We were joined by family friend Rowen, who we first met on our 2022 Santorini trip, and who was visiting from the Netherlands. Hannah and Rowen cooked us all a dinner of venison and ravioli. Later, with the sky very dark and clear, we went outside and viewed the stars. The constellations of Orion, the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia and the Pleiades were all very vivid. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the stars at their brightest.

[March 21, 2026; Lady Hall's Pool, Dunglass Beach] Katie, Hannah, Rowen, Dallas, Estel and I walked from The Corn Barn, along the Southern Upland Way, about a mile west of the town of Cockburnspath. This pedestrian path took us across a stone bridge high above the deep valley of Dunglass Burn (stream). Katie recollected that in her youth cars could drive across, for it was the main route to Edinburgh. But it is now open only to pedestrians. The path took us down the western side of the valley, past a small campground, to the beach. The tide was very low, and many tidal pools impounded by small hogbacks of sedimentary rocks extended into the sea. Estel waded around in one of the larger ones. Limpets and seaweed grew on the rocks and snails crawled around on the rippled sand between them. An Oystercatcher – a black and white bird with a long red beak - sat atop a large rock at the sea’s edge. I came across what I thought was the cast of a plant fossil. Later, my paleontologist colleague Paul Olsen told me that it’s “a wonderful example of Stigmaria, a form genus of a root of a giant lycopod tree”. We walked westward along the beach – a mix of sand, cobbles and stretches of bounders. The boulders were difficult to traverse and Estel wound up sticking to the flatter sedimentary outcrops, which though covered with seaweed, were more suitable to her four legs. Lady Hall's Pool is a large seawater-filled slot cut into these sediments. Dallas and Katie swam in it for a few minutes as Estel waded about its shallower end. Rowen and I continued on around the next headland, across a difficult boulder field, to a marvelous double-arch natural bridge. We then headed back. Katie found a grey stone with large vesicles on the beach. I thought it was vesiculated basalt, but Dallas though it was partially dissolved limestone. Later, I found a small piece of gemmy orange agate on the beach, too. Just as we reached the campground, Katie realized that she had left her scarf in Lady Hall's Pool, and whet back for it. I waited while the others headed back. Katie and I gathered wild garlic as we walked back up the valley.

[Cockburnspath, Scotland] Rowen made a bonfire in fire pit outside The Corn Barn. He and Dallas prepared a dinner of roast lamb, beef and pork. We all sat at a big outside picnic table for dinner, eating the meat, together with garlic pesto, as well as grilled peppers and baked potatoes. Later, Katie drove Dallas and me back to her apartment where we spent the night.

[March 22, 2026; Edinburgh Airport] Dallas and I arose early and caught the 5:35 AM Tram to the airport. Our flight was problem free. We arrived back home in Tappan at about 3PM New York time (7 PM in Edinburgh).