Ravensheugh + St Baldred’s Cradle, 8 March

Raf’s reactivity has challenged us to find new routes, whether that’s thinking about different places to walk or finding different routes in our familiar places.

And this walk is an example of the latter. The walk at Ravensheugh Sands and round St Baldred’s Cradle is one of our favourites in East Lothian - if you’re a regular reader, you’ll maybe have seen this one before in textures of Ravensheugh and the calm of low tide and, back in September last year, in from darkness to light.

But it’s a tricky walk with Raf. After parking, generally you’d head along Lime Tree Walk and then either branch left along the woodland path towards Ravensheugh Sands or go straight ahead, through the pine woodland to the rocky shoreline that looks towards Belhaven, and then wind round towards St Baldred’s Cradle.

But both these routes are challenging with a reactive companion, as both are guaranteed to have other people and dogs, especially the first one through the woodland as it’s the main path to and from the beach. And there’s no place to escape to, no side paths to dart off along or long grasses to hide within.

So we tried this alternative route instead - one we discovered by chance during a previous walk when Raf was way over threshold and we just needed to get off the beach, so we headed up into the dunes hoping for any route back to the car. And we found this path that runs behind the dunes, alongside the paddocks in the first photo above, before winding up into the woodland and between fields, leading back to the car park. On this sunshiny Saturday, we followed this route in reverse, eventually spilling down the dunes about half way along Ravensheugh Sands.

This was a beautiful low tide walk, albeit still one with challenges as there were a few distant people for Raf to worry about. (Distance doesn’t make things easier as that person a few hundred metres away is still cause for concern.) As we walked back along the beach, the light shifted as haar swept in gently over the sea, and by the time we reached the rocks above, heading towards St Baldred’s Cradle, the haar was settling, softening the glow of the setting sun - and softening the tones in each photo.

The temperature had also dropped, the warmth of the earlier sunshine replaced by the chill of the haar. We dipped into the woods briefly to avoid a few people on the beach, surrounded by birdsong as we walked, and then looped back onto the path that leads around the headland, enjoying the layers of textures in the rocks and gratefully absorbing the quietness of these scenes.