I’ve shared about this walk in two out of the last three posts here, which tells you something: we love this walk. This stretch of coastline between Yellowcraig and Gullane has become our favourite walk so far this year – after John Muir Country Park that is, as my second home will always hold a very special place for us.
But we keep coming back to this walk for its views, its variety – beaches, dunes, winding paths, rocky shores – and its quietness.
Where to begin when writing a blog post about peaceful scenes and the beauty of nature when faced with the trauma in our world at the moment. The brutality and horrifying inhumanity of the war in Ukraine. Watching hundreds of thousands of (primarily) women and children leave the security of the lives they’ve known; their homes, their jobs, their families; their husbands, partners, fathers, brothers, sons; leaving behind their identities, for a displaced life as refugees. As I’m writing this, there are two million people, refugees, who have left Ukraine. It’s unthinkable.
I was unsure of whether to share this post directly after my previous one, as it’s the same walk, leading to the same beach, but the light was incredible and I couldn’t resist sharing this place again so soon. It’s funny as in my bio at the bottom of the home page I’ve written: ‘this is my blog about coastal living and exploring Scotland,’ and yet, really, it’s become my blog about walks in East Lothian. We haven’t explored much beyond our local area since 2020 – and I’m sure we’re not alone in this.
Last year, before our first walk along this stretch of East Lothian’s coast, if you’d asked whether we knew Yellowcraig well, I’d have said yes, absolutely. We’ve walked at Yellowcraig for years and this is one of our favourite beaches. And not just the beach but through the woods, across the grassland, and along the dunes. This is a very familiar place to us.
Yet somehow, over the years, we’ve missed this walk, heading west from Yellowcraig in the direction of Gullane. It’s amazing how simply taking a different direction one day – in this case, heading left when you reach the beach rather than right – can lead to a completely new perspective of a familiar setting, with new views to Fidra, and the discovery of a stretch of coastline that has now become one of our favourite walks.
After finishing this week’s work, I’d settled down this afternoon to edit some photos from the weekend to share here, but then as I was scrolling back looking for something I came across this set of photos from a walk at Yellowcraig in April. I thought I’d shared them here already – I had posted this walk on Steller – but no, I think I was probably still in that in-between stage where I wasn’t sure about sharing walks here. I was in the ‘to blog or not to blog’ phase. So, I thought I’d rewind to these cooler days of early April when these beach walks were still chilly, and when we were starting to enjoy evening light again.
When I first considered sharing these walks here, I held back for months as it felt too personal – which seems silly, I know, as it’s my blog so why shouldn’t the content be personal? But after years of blogging about design, it seemed strange to share these moments from our lives. And now, within a few months, it feels instinctive. Like the most natural thing to do. Even if I’m aware that most people who land on this site, having followed a link from somewhere, are looking for design-related content. Hopefully, in time, that will change.
So, on that note, I wanted to share this walk from Sunday at Yellowcraig.
Hello and welcome to Copperline. My name is Fiona Reid and this is my blog about coastal living in Scotland.