“I’m by no means happier than after I’m writing.”
~ Ed Hood, as spoken to Martin Williamson from the passenger seat, using alongside a level direction on the Excursion de France.
Pricey Readers – Our loved colleague and pal Ed Hood suffered a major stroke in February. We don’t be expecting Ed will make it again into our bunch, so we’ve began a GoFundMe web page to assist Ed along with his long run. Learn the total submit right here – and please imagine donating.
** Click on this hyperlink to donate to the GoFundMe web page to assist Ed **
We’ll be posting a number of Ed’s paintings from the previous 16 years, as a result of nice story-telling by no means will get outdated.
Ed’s Native E-Motorcycle Gravel Ramble: As a substitute of taking pictures over the Channel to ‘Race Chase’ the Classics or the Excursion de France, Ed Hood has been getting higher familiar with his native paths, due to his Ribble gravel e Motorcycle. Here’s one among his favorite gravel rambles.
Ed’s Ribble e Motorcycle – Very a lot at house in Scotland
I’d been that means to get again into semi-serious motorcycle using for some time however a prognosis of spinal stenosis, which doesn’t have an effect on on a regular basis existence an excessive amount of however which is rattling sore in case you’re urgent arduous at the pedals, made it tough.
Then got here the, ‘Eureka!’ second – an e Motorcycle.
I’m fortunate the place I keep; simply yards from the Fife Coastal Trail, so an ‘e Gravel Motorcycle’ was once the selection. I plumped for the Ribble gadget, in contrast to many e Motorcycles that have lumps, bumps and protuberances the Ribble has the motor within the rear hub and the battery inside the down tube. To the informal observer, with the exception of what may well be an ejector seat button at the best tube, it’s indistinguishable from a typical gadget. The Coastal Trail is for pedestrians and cyclists handiest, operating proper around the Coast of the peninsula which bureaucracy the Kingdom of Fife, 117 miles from Kincardine at the River Forth to Newburgh at the River Tay. I am hoping to experience it all through the years, no longer in a single pass, I’m too outdated for that, fairly a bit at a time. It is sensible to begin in Kirkcaldy, no longer thus far from the place I are living in Dysart.
Harbour Bar
The place else however at of my favorite bars; ‘The Harbour’ has simply modified possession, the former landlord, Nick died closing 12 months, unfortunately. The brand new proprietor tells me that he’s going massive on Belgian beers, our first seek advice from is scheduled for this night.
Ravenscraig Citadel
First prevent after a brief phase of gravel unmarried monitor across the again of Kirkcaldy Harbour is Ravenscraig Citadel, a castle from 1460, on a rock outcrop with a commanding view of the Forth. It was once one of the vital first fortresses constructed to resist cannon fireplace with partitions as much as nearly 4 metres thick. Subsequent up was once a trudge alongside the seashore, pushing the motorcycle, the sand was once cushy and one has to marvel how Freddy Maertens used to do his coaching runs within the sand.
I like the Ribble however mild it’s not – alternatively, while you push the button as much as max of the 3 spice up ranges on tarmac or gravel the load turns into beside the point.
Doocot
Again within the day of the fort there have been no supermarkets so that you needed to make your personal preparations for victuals. Ravenscraig had a ‘beehive doocot’ – that’s ‘dovecote’ in English. Pigeons have been inspired to nest in there and turned into a supply of eggs and meat for the occupants of the fort. The horizontal ridges operating across the doocot have been to prevent rats operating up the partitions and entering into to ravage the doos.
Gravel paths now, the Ribble’s herbal surroundings which it handles with aplomb, the ones large 47 mm tyres are very grippy however responsive. The trail runs via Ravenscraig Park, the place the fringe wall follows the coast line, each cove and promontory. There are two tales concerning the wall, one is that it was once constructed by means of the Earl of Roslyn to stop miners taking shortcuts via what again then was once his personal park. However the different is that he commissioned it to offer paintings for locals in a time of want. Into my house village of Dysart now, in case you’re an ‘Outlander’ fan then you definately’ll recognise the environment, it featured within the sequence as a French sea port.
Dysart Harbour
The roofless development at the proper was once meant as a whale oil processing facility to profit from neighbouring Kirkcaldy’s burgeoning whaling business however the Earl of Roslyn vetoed that at the grounds that he didn’t need the scent of boiling blubber wafting as much as his house at Dysart Space.
Pan ha’
Just a little techniques previous the harbour lies the Pan Ha’ – a row of restored sixteenth to 18th century homes, as soon as fishermen’s properties however now extremely wanted. Saint Serf’s tower in the back of the homes was once a part of the now long past church however was once additionally a lookout tower to present caution of marauders bobbing up the Forth. The Title Pan Ha’ stems from the times when there have been salt pans right here, large steel, sea water crammed pans beneath which coal fires burned to evaporate off the water and depart the valuable salt which was once exported out of the harbour to England and the Low International locations. The structure betrays Dysart’s hyperlinks with The Netherlands and Belgium with ‘crow step’ gables and purple pantiles contributing to Dysart’s outdated nickname of, ‘Little Holland.’
Woman Blanche
The Woman Blanche pit stood simply alongside from the Pan Ha’ and a tunnel lead direct from the pit right down to the harbour the place it was once loaded directly to the ships for export to the Low International locations and Baltic. The 2 flights of tough steps which take the Trail up from sea degree to raised floor aren’t a a laugh push – however I inform myself, ‘it’s all a part of my determine.’
Frances Colliery
At the jap fringe of the village is any other of the only a few reminders of Fife’s as soon as large coal business, the preserved winding tower of the Frances Colliery. The Frances workings have been connected beneath the Forth to the Seafield Colliery which stood on the western finish of Kirkcaldy. Not anything stays of Seafield, a housing scheme now sprawls over the website. The fallout from the miners’ strike within the 80’s put an finish to each pits alternatively – Kirkcaldy and Dysart have by no means in reality recovered from the blow. ‘The pits’ of their heyday introduced prosperity to The Kingdom however at a worth; no longer simply relating to a number of gorgeous seashores spoiled by means of hundreds of heaps of pit waste but additionally in human lives misplaced.
Seals
Probably the most particular issues for me concerning the Coastal Trail is the rock outcrops drawing near the village of West Wemyss the place, when the tide is out the seals lay and solar themselves; not too long ago the brand new puppies have began to appear – a deal with for the senses as they wiggle within the daylight and sing their songs.
Michael Colliery crisis
Drawing near the village of East Wemyss is a flat house the place stood the Michael Colliery. A brief distance in land from the Trail, up in East Wemyss there’s a memorial to the 9 males who misplaced their lives within the Michael Colliery crisis of 1967 when fireplace ravaged the seams.
Erosion
Go into reverse at the Trail some sections have succumbed to the power of the North Sea, erosion now a serious problem for coastal spaces however fortunately, Donald Trump has advised us that we’re imagining world warming.
The Jimmy Shand memorial
East Wemyss was once the birthplace of accordion taking part in legend, Jimmy Shand – the village’s most famed son has his personal memorial, simply off the Trail.
Wemyss Caves
Just a little additional east are the Wemyss caves, a few of that have Pictish artwork on their partitions and one was once a doocot cave for within sight McDuff Citadel. It’s unhappy that so little has been completed to maintain those ancient gemstones.
The steps to MacDuff’s Citadel
There are extra stairs to complete this a part of the Trail as much as MacDuff Citadel; ‘again within the day’ there have been no steps right here, only a steep gravel trail which was once too steep for a large outdated boy like me to experience – taking place was once lovely wild despite the fact that.
MacDuff’s Citadel
MacDuff’s Citadel is in a sorry state now however was once as soon as house to essentially the most robust circle of relatives in Fife within the heart ages, even if not anything survives from this era. The prevailing ruins are the stays of the house of the Wemyss circle of relatives, who lived right here from the 14th century, and their successors within the sixteenth century.
*With Secteur Probably the most trail within the bag, it’s time to move again house alongside the coast street and residential – Secteur Two to observe.*
# You’ll examine Ed’s adventure from time trial motorcycle to Ribble e Motorcycle HERE. #
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