CRACKING VIEWS, GROMIT

A grand day out on Sunday, and a climb up North Berwick Law for the first time in about six years. I see they've filled in the old open-air seawater swimming pool to make a parking space for these wee two-man dinghies (for nerds only, from the Hindi dingi - a rowing boat once used on Indian rivers). Which I suppose is practical, but offers rather less imaginative potential for the J G Ballard fans among us. Take six Ballard short stories at random and I can almost guarantee there'll be an empty swimming pool in at least one of them.

Fidra

Craigleith, with North Berwick in the foreground

Bass Rock
(as featured in Catriona by RLS - a lousy novel containing some terrific writing. The Bass Rock section is particularly worth a look and includes a good ghost story - but skip all of the Holland stuff in the second half. It really is that bad.)