Secret Edinburgh: Rob Deering takes in the scenery at the Braid Burn

The last time someone asked me this I said the bar at the Cameo Cinema; that still deserves a mention, but I've got somewhere completely different to tell you about.

 

When I’m at the festival I stay at Sciennes, just by the end of the meadows – it’s super-handy for all the big venues, but every couple of days I run off in the opposite direction, south away from town and then west along a gorgeous little valley towards Morningside – Blackford Glen and the Hermitage of Braid, past the Braid Burn.

 

Braid Burn bubbles and tumbles its way down through the woods like something out of an old novel – actually it’s mentioned in the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, although I was thinking longer ago than that – and the whole scene is so pretty and pastoral it puts every last poster, flyer and little-black-box-studio-space out of your mind for a minute.

 

Pretty wet down there though. They’ve spent millions on flood defences the last few years, but they wouldn’t have had to if it wasn’t, y’know, like, really wet, eh.