Tuesday, April 7, 2009

wayside interpretation

Here's a great idea. Last week I walked a stretch of disused railway line, now a path, between Haddington and Longniddry in East Lothian. Along the way were these panels, with some helpful and fun suggestions for what to see provided by Longniddry Primary School.

From late April I'm going to be walking and writing along a new long-distance footpath in Dumfriesshire, the Annandale Way, which follows the Annan river from source to mouth for 52 miles between Moffat and Annan. I'll be working with five schools along the way to write some wayside interpretation and accompanying literature for paper. So the Haddington example was good to see.

The Annandale Way is new territory for me but already I know that it will pass through some fascinating story territory - reivers, the site of the discovery of an ancient bow, medieval land-use systems and even Merlin is said to be buried in a hill near Moffat. Atlantic salmon run the river and there's a famously tragic Burns song about Annan waters. We will have plenty to set our pens walking.

The path opens on September 12th.

2 comments:

Tousled Raven said...

Great to hear about this - both the path and the work with schools. Are you able to use the John Muir Award Scheme with the schools for this project as well? I guided 36 children from two primary schools in Eastern Dumfriesshire through their JMA last year and, incredibly they were the very first JMA's in D&G schools. Just a thought. Have lots of fun with this - I'm quite envious of your task!

Linda Cracknell said...

Thanks for the idea! - I'll enquire. I have a feeling that they're not going to be walking very far but maybe the interpretation will count towards the JMA.