About the walks

The book describes 10 walks, all starting at Gorebridge Rail Station. Nine of the walks are circular in nature, finishing at the station so no transport other than feet is required. Newbattle Abbey (walk 5) finishes at Eskbank Rail Station where you can catch a train back or walk a little further to the Tesco Supermarket and catch a bus. The walks are of varying length and all have a description which includes the distance and will prepare you for the terrain en route. The time each walk takes has been calculated on approximately 2.5 miles/4km per hour with “picnic time” added where the distance is over 5miles/8km. Some of the walks have gates, stiles and steps and need a certain amount of agility to get round. Many have tracks through fields and along paths that can become very muddy in wet weather, so stout walking shoes/boots are essential.

Although the little booklets are like gold dust at the present, now is a great time to make sure they are available to as many people as possible. So we have saved them as individual walks, click here to go to the download page.

Before You Go:

Double check the bus numbers (i.e. the 33 no longer serves Gorebridge although mentioned in the booklet), let us know if a walk is impassable (fencing in place), follow the code (where there are no cows in a field one day, they may be there the next), let someone know you are heading out if walking alone, join the Gorebridge Walkers group and post if you want others to join you.

Go to Download Page

Alyson will be easily recognisable in her outdoor gear so if you see her up to her elbows in compost please do say hello.

Each week they come to the garden and diligently attend to the raised beds, turning over the coffee grinds that are put in from the café to enrich the soil. They have also been very hard at work preparing an area of the garden for a wildflower meadow!

We have received a small grant from Volunteering Matters which has allowed us to purchase some wonderful meadow, bee and butterfly seeds from Scotia Seeds. We received some great advice from them on what would be the best type to buy to fit in with our garden. We were also able to buy some new junior tools so that our younger members can participate in the digging!

The ground is now all ready and just awaiting planting in March.

The children have also been very busy making natural bird feeders to place around the garden so hopefully that will attract more wildlife.

Of course, it is not all just hard work. There is always time for play and the children have had great fun with loose parts play, making up nature potions in the mud kitchen and den building.
Every session we finish with a snack of treats provided by the Gorebridge Community Fridge which is something the children greatly enjoy and look forward to.

Looking ahead we will be planting some bulbs and developing our nature play area as well as planning what to plant in our raised beds.

We are still looking for resources for den building so if you happen to have any tarps or ropes or bungee cords please do let us know.
contact me at lorna.lagerman@gorebridge.org.uk

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny, if a little chilly! Perfect weather for a Woodland Wildlings ramble down into Gore Glen for some nature activities and hot chocolate.

We met outside the library at 10.30 and were delighted to be joined by two new families who had travelled over from Penicuik to join us. It was there first time visiting the Glen so were very pleased to show them Gorebridge’s hidden gem.

We headed down through the beech woods and over the railway bridge where we were greeted by the fantastic new steps that the council have just put in. It made going down the steep embankment much easier, especially for our baby wearing mums.

We spent time by the waterfall which never fails to enthrall children of all ages before we headed along the path to a small clearing where we set up camp for activities. On offer were nature crowns and bracelets, magical wands and journey sticks, leaf puppets and bark rubbings. Some  of the over children enjoyed exploring along the riverbank and the younger ones all chose to make crowns and bracelets. We had some truly fantastic creations by the time the hot chocolate was ready.

Soon it was getting very cold and before the effects of warm drinks could wear off, we packed up and headed for home. Just before we leaving, we made sure our little camp fire was safely extinguished and highlighted to all the children how important it is to make sure that fires are carefully and responsibly managed.

Thank you to all who joined in and made it such a wonderful morning. I’m pretty sure we all slept well on Saturday night!

You can find out more about Woodland Wildlings by contacting lorna.lagerman@gorebridge.org.uk or find us on Facebook

We had lots of lovely acorns (collected from non other than the oldest oak around up in Birnam) as well as pine cones, oak leaves, dog wood, willow and a selection of wool to create some dream catchers, acorn webs or anything else that took the fancy of our crafty, creative group!

In the meantime, the wee wildlings got into the spirit of Halloween with some potion making! We had fire water (vinegar), powdered cobwebs (bicarbonate of soda), slime (washing up liquid) and some spooky colours (food colouring). The shrieks and whoops of delight as the potions bubbled up over the mini cauldrons was very much in keeping with the spirit of the activity!

Plenty of biscuits and cups of tea and coffee and some marvellous nature creations later, it was time to wrap another super session.

If the weather permits, we will be heading for a welly wander, nature crafts and some hot chocolate.

If you would like to know more about Woodland Wildlings, please email me at lorna.lagerman@gorebridge.org,uk

Yesterday I helped Jaimie run one of her beeswax wrap sessions at the World of Plastics event hosted by Edinburgh College.

We had a bit of a slow start but as word spread we got busier and busier throughout the day and by lunch time there was a queue of people waiting to make wraps with.

Everyone enjoyed making the wraps and it also helped raise awareness of single use plastic.

We helped about 30 people make wraps and engaged with about 45 people throughout the day.

What was really exciting was that at least 10 participants said that they would be making wraps at home to give to friends and family for Christmas!

We even had one boy so enthusiatic that he expereimented to see whether he could make an origami cup htta would hold liquid. it’s didn’t work 100%, it would be perfect if you just needed a quick drink (it was still letting water through slowly) but I think with a bit more wax it could have done the job beautifully.

Wraps are  a great way to wrap up things like sandwiches and a handful of cut veggies for lunch, or to cover leftovers in the fridge.

Here is a lovely demo of how to make a beeswax wrap sandwich pocket:

Why are we so keen to promote beeswax wraps?

Well, more than 1.2 billion meters, equating to 745,000 miles of cling film is used by households across Britain every year – that is enough to go around the circumference of the world 30 times over.

In addition to this, cling film is difficult to recycle and information about where specific types of cling film can be recycled is hard to find. This means that the majority of it still ends up in landfill where it takes hundreds of years to degrade and risks leaching chemicals into groundwater. Biodegradable cling film alternatives have been developed but many conservation organisations are campaigning against oxo-degradable plastics as they simply degrade into smaller and smaller particles and contribute to marine pollution.

Like plastic bags cling film that ends up in the sea is easily confused for jellyfish by marine animals and chokes turtles and other creatures that feed on them.

We loved being part of the Science Festival and met some wonderful people that we hope to be running events with in the future. Watch this space!

The group runs throughout the school holidays and there are regular themed sessions as well. We enjoy lots of nature activities such as digging, planting and growing seeds, making bird feeders, painted rainbow rocks and much more.

The next one of these will be held on Friday the 10th of August with another one later in the month.

Check in with the Woodland Wildlings facebook page or contact Lorna at lorna.lagerman@gorebridge.org.uk for more information.

Woodland Wildlings 18/19 is supported by Midlothian Council Small Grants