Final Day – 18 July 25km to Dunbar and thoughts on John Muir Way

The last day of our walk was another nice 25km walk from North Berwick to Dunbar.  This completed our 215km walk from the East to the West Coast of Scotland. 

We left the town and cut across farmland until then followed the coast into Dunbar, another busy holiday place. The pictures below tell the story well. The day was fine and  the walk easy.

We had quite a grand finish this time as we were congratulated at John Muir’s birthplace by the local ladies who knew all about John.

We wandered through the 3 floors of the cottage reading all about him. Born in Dunbar in 1838, his family moved to USA when he was 11 years old and lived there until he died in 1914.

He learned to love the outdoors and nature as a young boy, probably to escape from his abusive father. AJohn Muir is known as the Father of National Parks and Conservation. He spent his life  advocating for the preservation of wilderness in the United States and the whole world. I didn’t know about him until I did the walk, but I feel I should have. Google him up, and you will see that he did a lot to preserve our world.

We had our last night of luxury at The Royal Mackintosh Hotel. The outside looked rather like a homeless shelter with its faded plastic flowers surrounding the doorway. 

The website suggests that people who want a modern hotel should not book here as the hitel has its quirks.

She was  grand old Victorian  building and we were quite comfortable there. We celebrated finishing  with a meal in the restaurant. Kay had pie and vegetables, and I really enjoyed the Yorkshire pudding and vege. They were  a welcome change from our discounted salads.

So my final thoughts on the John Muir Way

We saw more working castles, palaces, and great halls  rather than just piles of rocks, as we saw on our previous walks through Wales and England.

Every day, I felt like I was walking through history and I read about it on the many information boards along the route. I haven’t shared much with you as I very quickly forget what I have read. I can’t keep any more of  the Royal Family lineage in my mind prior to the latest Queen Elizabeth, let alone recall all the stuff back in 1000s of years.

It is a flat walk that would be good for a first damn long walk or your last one before heading off to the nursing home. Be aware that you would still need to be able to walk 25-30km a day and the easiest way is to use a your comoany like we did.We used Macs Adventures to transport our bags each day and organise all our accommodation.

This really made it easy for us. It cost me $2,800 NZD for  12 days 11 nights, bed and breakfast, and all the planning and organizing. They provided maps and information for each day, which we downloaded and could access without the internet.  Overall, it was a very good experience.