Day 39 - Leith

14 May 2003

Happy Mother’s Day! Public transport in this area is very easy to use. This morning we drove to Inverkeithing train station and caught the train into Edinburgh, only a 30-minute journey over the Firth of Forth bridge. We firstly walked down to Dean Village, via a café in the lovely Rose Street. Rog and I had visited Dean Village earlier in the trip, but it was lovely to be able to show mum around. Mum found it very quaint and very olde-worldy English. We must have been there at a good time because there were much less people around than when Rog and I visited. Mum and I then decided to walk the 5km down to Leith itself, partly following the Water of Leith (we have almost done 21,000 steps today!). We took a slightly longer route so we could walk down Constitution Steet where our Gilfillan family lived and worked in the mid-1800s. The South Leith Parish Church is also on the same street and we managed to find the impressive headstone for Mum’s 4^th Gt Uncle, Robert Gilfillan, who was a Scottish songwriter and poet. The stone has an image of Robert, and it was lovely to see what he would have looked like.

After stopping in a café two doors down from where the Gilfillans had lived, we walked over to the mouth of the Leith where we found the old Custom House (not quite as grand as the one in Greenock) and many old original buildings that would have served the busy port in days gone by. It is such a pretty setting with the river flowing through, there were lots of birds and, as well as a cruise ship, a couple of large boats that have been converted into ‘luxury hotel accommodation’. It seemed to be to us a place that embraced its history. After we had finished wandering, it was very easy to catch a bus that dropped us off directly outside the train station and then we hopped straight on a train back to Inverkeithing. Easy peasy.

Top photo is Dean Village, middle left photo is the grave yard and church at South Leith, Robert Gilfillan in the centre photo, right photo is view of Firth of Forth from train. Bottom photo is Leith.

Tomorrow we leave Dunfermline and start heading south – this time next week we will be in Newcastle. Tonight we had one final walk through the lovely Pittencrieff Park and to our favourite Dunfermline eating house, the historic Guildhall.