Above the Law

To steal Jonmikel’s signature title for this entry, today we traveled Above the Law. Clever, I know.

We headed out to North Berwick (pronounces Berrick, why? Because they’re Scottish), which is about 20 miles east of Edinburgh, or a nice half hour by train. Once you get out of Edinburgh, the number of nice, single-family homes increases exponentially. If I were to stay in the area long-term, I would definitely look to living out this was and just commuting by train. It’s quite nice, really.

North Berwick is a cute little seaside town, the kind of place families go on weekends to get out of the city. So, full of small bathing suit clad children running into the cold ocean, squealing, running out, and doing it al again, taking breaks to poke at the dead jellyfish that line the shores. It felt very Cape Codish, with very traditional colonial style architecture, boats everywhere, people in big hats, tall grasses growing up from the sands to give it that particularly New England feel.

The day started off gray, so we took the opportunity to climb up this small, cone-shaped mini-mountain, called a law. The law in question is the North Berwick Law, aptly named, I think. It’s not large, perhaps half the size of Arthur’s Seat, but offered great views of the surrounding coasts and bays and farmland. It riises sharply from the middle of the city, rather like Arthur’s Seat, and is even made from the same geological processes, basically a volcanic plug that was left after lava hardened inside a volcano and then the mountain fell away on the outside, leaving the exposed lava rock. Like Devil’s Tower, only more urban. There are several ruins on top, an old stone chapel, some defense structures from the Napoleonic Wars, some prehistoric stone circles of unknown use, and a fence around what used to be a whale jawbone, removed for posterity’s sake, or something.

It worked us up an appetite, so we headed into town to have some fish and chips at an outdoor eatery, the we meandered around town until it was time to return to Edinburg. We stopped to look at an old church that had been abandoned for some time but that housed several old and creepifying graves. We took some time ourselves to poke dead jellyfish, beautiful little guys entirely clear except for four neon purple rings in their centers. We also marveled at the British version of mini-golf: a large green space with holes in strategic locations. Seriously, that was it. No windmills or waterfalls or creatively placed tunnels or even separate areas for each hole. Entirely unentertaining, if you ask me. Just a big open green space.

One thing I will say for the Scottish, it’s easy to get out of town. The cities may be big and modern, but a 20 minute train or bus ride will take you into the middle of nowhere for a nice day-long mini-vacation. There was nothing about North Berwick that suggested it was commuting distance from Edinburgh.