Big Hole, False Ruin and a Missing Bridge: A Lunan Burn Reconnaissance

Today’s wee eMTB expedition had one clear primary objective: get outdoors and inhale some fresh air. A modest ambition, perhaps, but an important one.

Secondary objectives included collecting a few photographs for Geograph and capturing some potential Komoot Trail Photos. No Romans today. Not one. An extraordinary lapse in operational standards, but we carried on regardless.

We had barely begun when we encountered the first major discovery: a very large hole in a farmer’s field. It appeared to be gravel extraction connected with the construction of nearby commercial hen sheds. Unexpected industrial archaeology of the extremely recent variety. Photographs were taken. Questions were raised. No chickens were available for comment.

Progress was then interrupted by a small diversion to gather additional photographs for a 3D Gaussian splat model of a ruined building. The existing model has a few gaps, and the plan was to capture the missing angles. Unfortunately, the summer vegetation had launched a comprehensive visual-obstruction programme. The ruin was still there, but much of it was hiding behind several tonnes of greenery.

A winter return has therefore been authorised. Less vegetation. Better visibility. Probably more mud.

A little farther along, we spotted what looked remarkably like the gable end of another ruined building among some roadside trees. This demanded immediate investigation. Bikes were parked, undergrowth was negotiated and expectations rose rapidly.

It was not a ruined building.

It was the enormous root plate of an upended tree.

Very convincing from the road. Considerably less architectural when viewed up close. Still, negative identification is identification. Valuable intelligence gathered.

Eventually, the required Geograph photographs were secured and the expedition descended a new-to-me track towards a quiet stretch of the Lunan Burn. We’ve become increasingly interested in the former watermills associated with this watercourse, so any opportunity to inspect another section of it is considered strategically important.

An Ordnance Survey map from around 1900 showed a footbridge crossing the burn here. More than a century later, however, the bridge had vanished completely. No deck, no handrails and no convenient crossing. The map had made a bold promise which the modern landscape was unwilling to honour.

Naturally, several potentially useful—but visually unexciting—Komoot Trail Photos were collected along the way. Someone, somewhere, may one day need to know what an ordinary stretch of track looks like. When that moment comes, we shall be ready.

Big hole inspected. False ruin exposed. Geograph squares documented. Missing bridge confirmed. Komoot supplied with practical mediocrity.

Fresh air achieved. Life lived.