Cranshaws Community Walk

Cranshaws is a small village just outside of Duns, just on the cusp of East Lothian but within the Scottish Borders. A few years ago, some of the locals managed to secure some funding from the Lammermuir Community Fund and the Community Windpower Ltd. and they used it to create a wonderful community walk of approximately 4km, just outside of the village and through their beautiful countryside , following the path of the Whiteadder Water as it carves its way through the legendary Lammermuir Hills. The walk has it’s own labelled (free) car-park at the designated start point for the walk. There is room for maybe 4 or 5 cars, but on an unusually warm and sunny September weekday, we were the only visitors so had plenty of space to park my wee red van.

The entrance to the walk from the car park

I am hugely grateful to the people of Cranshaws for going to the effort to create this walk because it truly is the most wonderful way to spend a couple of hours! The scenery is simply spectacular and the quirky little signage that features throughout was not lost on me either- it is clearly a project born out of love and pride for the local area, and I am more than happy to promote this place to anyone seeking some time out in nature!

The walk is dog friendly and relatively easy to follow. It is a self contained route so you never cross a field of livestock, although there were cows and sheep in adjacent fields. The start leads from the car park through an avenue of newly-planted trees and to a gate where handmade wooden arrows point you to the right and up a small grassy hill. There is a picnic area signposted to the left but as always, we were on a tight schedule so gave this a miss, and instead continued to follow the route to the right along a small track running adjacent to a field on the left and a woodland on the right. As we walked we were nearly knocked off our feet by a low-flying fighter jet, possibly on an exercise from Leuchers air base- they do seem to frequent the Lammermuirs fairly regularly, but it is a sight and sound that never fails to impress so that was an added source of excitement for our little adventurer who again, was forced along on an adventure whilst his big bro’s were all at school.

Following the path up the hill- this is where we saw the jet

The path leads to some funky wooden steps, ‘Kev’s Steps’ to be exact- no ide who Kev is but his steps are pretty cool! Cross over a tiny burn at the bottom, and follow the path as it winds into the mottled shade of some older native trees, to an adorable wooden stile. It is optional at this point to lift your heavy, lazy, useless springador that refuses to do anything for itself over this (as we chose to), and you will find yourself in a lovely, mossy, mushroomy paradise as you stroll alongside the bubbling brook of the Whiteadder water.

The woody path winds itself uphill once more and soon you will emerge from the trees and find yourself at a wonderfully sturdy wooden bench with picture-perfect views of Cranshaws Kirk in the distance, a view that might have come straight off a postcard (the photo below does not do it justice)!

The path continues, down another set of steps and across a wee wooden bridge, to meet the banks of the river once more. Soon, there are a few spots where a water-loving kelpie-dog can get in to cool off and have a swim before the path narrows and you find yourself on a small fenced-in stretch that runs along a farmers field, containing to our surprise- a whole load of grouse-type birds, whose sole purpose in life it seemed was to run along the ground, making a great kerfuffal and sending our dogs loopy!

This section of the path ends abruptly at a wooden gate and a picturesque stone road bridge that crosses the river. Turn right and cross the bridge, sticking tightly to the right hand side of the road, although it is quiet, it is a fast road and seems to be particularly popular with motorbikes. For this stretch of the walk, you have no option but to follow the road, and do be warned that there is no footpath so keep your dogs (and feral children!) on the lead. You need only follow the road for 100m or so before a small car park will emerge on the right- walk through the car park and a small gate leads you to the riverside path that heads you back on the loop towards the car park on the opposite river bank. Shortly you will see a large metal fence to your left and inside this enclosure you will find the most whimsical community orchard, complete with apples of all varieties and a small, sandy playpark. I left our little critter to climb, and grub about in the sand whilst I slowly meandered through the rows of newly planted fruit trees, picking the occasional apple and popping a few into our rucksack for later (I hope the locals don’t mind!). How lovely!

Fruit trees and a playpark, what more could possibly you want?!

Exiting the orchard the way you entered, through a big metal gate, its worth taking a minor detor from here to the riverside- you can follow a well-trodden path- this is the walk’s designated ‘swimming hole’- and it really is a fab wee spot for a river dip- though for today, we left it just for the dogs.

The path continues along the banks of the river and becomes quite muddy in places as you enter a darker patch of woodland. There had clearly been a fair bit of rainfall and we were directed by some signs to take a minor ‘diversion’ up the bank a short way as the lower path had clearly been somewhat washed away- it was no trouble though I would recommend decent footwear for this part of the walk. This muddy, woodland, riverside adventure continues for some time,and at one point we had to clamber through a fallen log that had been kindly sawed in half for access. There is a signposted little pebble beach here that is easily scrambled to and absolutely lush! We spent a good few minutes here skimming stones and watching the schools of tiny ‘fishies’ passing by. The water is shallow and clear, we really are spoilt for that in Scotland!

Skimming stones and watching the fishies

Back on the path be sure to look across the water here to the field on the other side, there is a big metal statue of a stag amongst some other random ramshackle sheds and what looks like a long unloved boat sculpture- an unusual sight in a field of cows but interesting nonetheless.

This is where our walk comes to an end. A quick, final scramble up onto the roadside will find you just next to the car park where it all began! The loop took us around an hour and a half to two hours in total, but take your time- life moves more slowly in the countryside and you will want to savour every view, every berry, mushroom, and beach. A lot of love went into creating this walk and you can absolutely tell… it is well worth the short drive out of East Lothian. Next time I plan to bring the full team, and a picnic!

Cove Harbour, Cockburnspath