The Great Outdoors
So much of what we enjoy involves tramping around in mud or just being out of doors. Fortunately, we live in a very beautiful county.
We love our town and like to spend time picnicking on the beach, especially Morison's Haven where you can collect fragments of broken pottery (a relic from the town's industrial past). I am fond of taking my metal detector despite the fact we have never found anything with it. We often combine this with a visit to Prestongrange Museum or Burns Yard.
The Woodland Trust's Nature Detectives site is a fantastic resource with over 1000 downloads, games and activity sheets to get kids outdoors.Beachwatch
The Adopt-a-Beach scheme, supported by the Crown Estate and DEFRA's Environmental Action Fund, has been developed from the hugely successful annual Beachwatch event, which continues as the flagship of Adopt-a-Beach. Nationally, the project aims to create a network of 500 adopted beaches around the UK cost, making it the country's largest coastal environmental initiative.
We 'adopted' the 100m length of beach stretching from the steps opposite the Prestoungrange Gothenburg westward past the murals. The annual beachwatch survey takes place during the September weekend when we, along with other volunteers clean and survey each and every bit of debris collected in the 100m zone.
The information gathered during the surveys will be used to raise awareness of the problems and dangers of coastal marine litter to both humans and wildlife. It will also enable the main sources of local litter inputs to be identified and the polluters responsible to be targeted.
More information: Adopt-a-Beach
Geocaching
The pursuit is often described as 'high tech treasure hunting'. Basically, a weatherproof container is hidden (but not buried) and the aim is to track it down using specified GPS co-ordinates and the given clues. A container can be anything from a tiny magnet smaller than a watch battery to a lidded lunchbox packed full of toys and novelties.
It's a great way to make more of your outside time and fits in well with other pursuits e.g. dog walking, birdwatching, rambling, bookcrossing etc. No matter where you are in the world, you are never very far from a geocache.
We went on our first geocache in 2007 and, although we don't go nearly as often as we would like, we find it great fun.
More information: Geocaching.com
Litterpicking
This is my obsession but the other Barkers often as not join in any clear ups going on and we have all got in the habit of taking a litter picker and rubbish bag along with us when we go out for a stroll.
Cuthill Park was neglected for years until a bunch of locals turned up with gardening tools, litter pickers and paint and smartened it up. The Council added a dog bin and overnight one particularly unpleasant feature of Cuthill was eliminated. The people who live near to the park have formed an action group with a view to securing funding and safeguarding it's future.
Oblitter8 was a town-wide clear up to launch the East Lothian Litter Initiative which combined litterpicking with geocaching.
The local churches regularly combine forces to combat litter. The CCU (Church Clear Up) Crew kindly let me tag along on clear ups despite the fact I am not a member of any church.
Prestongrange Community Archaeology Project
The project, which has been supported by a £50,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and developed and co-ordinated by East Lothian Council Archaeological Service and East Lothian Council Museums Service was launched on Saturday 24 April 2004 at Prestongrange Museum.
The Project provides 20 or so local volunteers - of whom I was lucky enough to be one - with the opportunity to take an active role in archaeological work assisting professional archaeologists to uncover more about the history of the site. The first phase had three main aims:
1. to investigate the 16th century harbour, fort, vaults and
tidal mill, the 17th century glassworks, the 18th century pottery and
the 19th century tollbooth
2. to provide information which will contribute to the long-term
conservation and interpretation of Prestongrange
3. to enable interested individuals and local communities to get
actively involved in a long term archaeological project, working
alongside qualified archaeologists
More information: PCAP
Guerrilla Gardening
Secret sprinkling, midnight planting, illicit cultivation. What are we on about? Guerrilla gardening involves taking over a derelict plot of land and doing whatever is necessary to restore it to its former glory. It can be as simple as pulling a few weeds, planting a few daffodils...or whatever your resources allow.
I occasionally join up with other guerrillas in my war on weeds - check out the Edinburgh Community Gardening Activists blog.More information: Guerrilla Gardening
Urban Exploration
I'm not exactly sure where my fascination with industrial buildings and tunnels comes from but I have a sneaking suspicion that growing up in the shadow of Markham Main's enormous pit wheel has something to do with it.
Growing up in South Queensferry, there were numerous opportunities to rake around disused buildings and I didn't really appreciate this at the time. There was a wonderfully ruinous marina at Port Edgar which, along with WW1 buildings had, for some reason, a stage. There was the old picture house in the High Street which was used at the time to store the council's landscaping equipment.My sister Rachel recalls being bribed by me to go through a toilet window in order to let me in through the front door of a deserted hotel on a West Sussex beach. There was evidence of a security guard (underpants under the one fully made up bed) and a fully stocked bar which held little interest to us kids. We scarpered when we realised we thought we had triggered an infra red alarm. I must point out that Rachel is now a responsible adult and no longer breaks into buildings.
In about 1986, on what is now an industrial estate in Bonnington Road, Edinburgh, I was in a dilapidated building behind Dr Bell's Baths. It was getting dark and I was in this totally wrecked building. It was full of masonry and there was no good reason for anyone of sound mind to be in the place. After a monumental struggle to reach what remained of the first floor, I heard two voices. I flew out of that building and never returned.
So, is it dangerous?
Well common sense tells you not to crawl around with bare
hands if there is a change of being jabbed by a used needle. Industrial
sites may have traces of chemicals. There may be sheer drops. The list
goes on....
Be sensible
- Take a torch + a spare. A strap on headlight is ideal.
- Tell someone where you are going. Remember if your mobile phone works you are probably not doing it right! Some hard-core urbexers take walkie talkies with them but I'd personally prefer to fill my pockets with chocolate.
- Take a couple of plasters.
- Wear a hard hat, gloves, and reinforced boots - coupled with a hi-vis vest and a clip-board if you want to look "official".
- Ideally go with others
- Take any medication you may require.
- Remember your camera!
Is it legal?
(or whether to use boltcutters or not). Well, it depends to a
large extent what you plan to do. If you have a genuine interest in
architecture and want to take photos then what harm are you doing? I
think you should disguise your point of entry if only to deter
youngsters from getting into bother. If, on the other hand you are a
moron who wants to vandalise property for the hell of it then you
deserve to be caught and stop reading our website you eejit.
The much-missed Ninjalicious on the Infiltration
site says "I don't think there is anything wrong with urban
exploration, at least not the type described here and on 95 percent of
the other sites on the Internet, and I can't pretend I do. Genuine
urban explorers never vandalize, steal or damage anything - we don't
even litter. We're in it for the thrill of discovery and a few nice
pictures, and probably have more respect for and appreciation of our
cities' hidden spaces than most of the people who think we're naughty.
We don't harm the places we explore. We love the
places we explore.
While it's true that some aspects of the hobby happen to be illegal,
it's important not to confuse the words "illegal" and "immoral". Laws
against trespassing are like laws against being out after curfew:
people get into trouble not for actually doing anything harmful, but
simply because the powers that be are worried that they might."
JB