Due to some roadworks and road closure of Clifton Road for the next 3 weeks I have to significantly modify my commute to Livingston. Since I don't really fancy learning all the new potholes in the dark, I am trying to modify the route as little as possible.
So my question is: is it possible to go through Jupiter Artland (at this time of the year) to get to Bonnington Village? I am not sure if it's a private road etc
Thanks
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
Crossing Jupiter Artland
(25 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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Where is Clifton Rd closed?
I sometimes come home that way so am glad to find out. Hopefully they are fixing some of the pot-holes on the route!
Posted 5 years ago # -
@galaxy it will be closed between the Linwater caravan park and the big power lines (by the road junction, south of the caravan park). It's only a few hundred meters but very inconvenient. Not many pot-holes there either.
Last week they closed the section by the donkeys for sewerage works, so no pot-holes fixed.
I don't think they will fix the pot-holes until the finish building all of the new houses there.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Posted 5 years ago #
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@HankChief exactly that! Thanks. Though the signs they put along the road didn't indicate that the closure would be so extensive. Good to know.
I am looking for an alternative route that doesn't involve going onto A71 (even for a little bit). Hence I thought about avoiding Wilkieston by going through Jupiter Artland.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Jupiter Artland is currently closed of course so it may feel a bit like going up someone's driveway.
There is a one way system south to north, but it's probably only in operation when JA is.
Here's what the sign at the gate says:
https://www.mapillary.com/map/im/PgyPPX8Gp40wX53hNODcqw
You would need to veer right before the car park. That takes you to the road to Bonnington Cottages (assume that is the same as "Bonnington Village"?)
You can also continue north to Clifton Road but it's not surfaced:
Posted 5 years ago # -
That road marked on the twitter feed is one of the worst bits, really hoping it gets new surface on it!
Posted 5 years ago # -
@cb that's all very useful information -- thank you very much! I shall suss it out tonight.
And yes, I meant Bonnington Cottages.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Any success @Bill? Jupiter Artland has a big gate with a series of dandelion clocks made from nine inch nails at the east Calder entrance. there is also a big grey gate at the bomnington cottages entrance. At least now when it opens cars go in the ast Calder entrance and out the bomnington cottages exit. Used to only be bikes that cold get out that way.
Fortunately one short bit of A71 then a left the turn and on the road bonjington cottages exit joins.
Are you then going down to Ratho and canal?
Posted 5 years ago # -
@gembo @cb So I got through the East Calder entrance with no problem. However "the big grey gate" at the Bonnington cottages entrance was closed. It looks like the gate is motorised and I couldn't see a way to get around it. So I ended up going down to Clifton Rd but it is not surfaced (as @cb mentioned), pot-holey and quite slopey, so I didn't have a great time there. There is a gate at the Clifton Rd entrance -- it was closed but not locked, so luckily I didn't have to climb on the sides or go back.
Then I headed up Clifton Hall Rd (a bit of a slope that was) and to Ratho and onto the canal. I didn't enjoy the section too much either.
This is my tonight's route: https://www.strava.com/activities/1949874871
@gembo Yes, it would be a short section on A71 but I would have to do a right turn off A71 in the morning, which I imagine is tricky as there is loads of traffic heading east.
I think tomorrow I will try staying on towpath past Almond aqueduct and then cut through Calderwood park.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@bill, yes you are right, motorised. When we exited on our bikes during the day (before it was a way cars could get out) it opened by magic. Though there was maybe a buzzer to press. And we were looking to press it, when hey presto the gate started to open. We shouted thanks. There are cameras all over the place. For example if you slide down the Jencks Earth mound someone will come down and check you.
Surprised you got in the big nail gate. But also surprised they finally negotiated getting all their traffic out through bonnington cottages. That can't be nice for the little hamlet.
Your right turn off the a71 onto east Calder is tricky. Coming up from Ratho there are traffic lights to get you on to the a71 but maybe there is a pavement that would take you to the east Calder turn.?
A bit of a long detour would be come off canal at Heriot watt, cycle through Heriot watt, go out the west gate turn left then first right along the dalmahoy road. At the end follow the road round to the left, over the railway, then take the back road to Kirknewton. Cycle past the large fake standing stones up into Kirknewton proper. Then right past school and over railway and down to the A71 junction. This is all traffic lighted. Though has two sets to get you over the A71. Then it is down to East Calder. I am however exhausted just typing this route. No hills though and good quiet back roads the long dalmahoy can be a rat run and there are quarry lorries to watch out for before kikmewton
Posted 5 years ago # -
Would going through Pumpherston and then getting on to the towpath to the weat of the Almond Aqueduct be an option?
(I was going to suggest the Long Dalmahoy Road route but I see gembo has already done so.)Posted 5 years ago # -
Would going through Pumpherston and then getting on to the towpath to the west of the Almond Aqueduct be an option?
(I was going to suggest the Long Dalmahoy Road route but I see gembo has already done so.)Posted 5 years ago # -
The route I took this morning was abit left field.
From East Calder I cycling up to Kirknewton station, then took a train to Curriehill, then via Herriot Watt campus to the canal tow path.
Is that cheating?
Posted 5 years ago # -
@fimm I did think about going through Pumpherston. I may give it a go. This morning I went through Almond Aqueduct and the weir (which did have water flowing through it) but I cut through the country park to East Calder. Pumpherston way is probably less prone to be frosted in the next weeks.
@gembo @fimm Long Dalmahoy Road scares me but may also give it a try.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@biketrain Maybe your name should be 'biketrainbike'?
Posted 5 years ago # -
@bill very good.
I chose the name biketrain for two reasons.
Firstly I when the children were younger I used to tow two children’s bikes behind my bike and secondly because for years I had used the combination of bike and train to commute.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Also the names BikeTramBike and BikeFoldBusUnfoldBike would be appropriate at times.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@bill: Cliftonhall Road is basically used as a racetrack, not helped by the haulage traffic generated by all the industrial units at the Newbridge end, a fair proportion of which wants to head for the A71 rather than the motorways. Wilkieston Road isn't quite so busy but drivers still have heavy right feet going that way. Cliftonhall Road was reduced to 50mph a few years back but I believe Wilkieston Road is still GLF (aka NSL). However, there is a footway alongside both roads which I imagine is barely used and might be employed if one was prepared to make appropriate and courteous allowance for any pedestrians one might encounter outside of Ratho's 30 limit. (I'd suggest that it's questionable why it isn't already designated as shared use.)
Posted 5 years ago # -
@ejstubbs I saw the pavement on the side Cliftonhall Road and was surprised by its good conditions. However it had quite a lot of little stones on it and I didn't want to stop on the uphill, so I carried on.
The pavement along Wilkieston Road seemed to have quite a few kerbs at the entrances to the fields. So I am not too keen on it.Now I realise that all of it probably makes me sound fussy...
And I am trying to figure out what 'GLF' stands for. I am coming up with rude and less-rude meanings
Posted 5 years ago # -
@bill
GLF = Go like 'Fast' or some other 4 letter word.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@biketrain: My motorcycle instructor told me that his friends on the force always used to refer to it thusly (ie using "some other four-letter word").
That was in the (early) 1980s. The world was a different place then. Though perhaps not as different as it ought to be by now.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Coming out of the climbing centre (say you were en famille) there is a pavement but it just kind of ends half way up to Wilkieston, maybe picks up on other side of road.??
@bill - you know @fimm cycles to Livingston from town on the A70. Fimm best placed to say whether the lang whang is sufficiently without traffic (you will largely be against the flow). If tempted this does involve ascent - either steepish up the road from longstone or gradual on the WoL Path. There is also a route from balerno that avoids the long dalmahoy road. It is a path from near bottom of ravelrig hill (that is a fun descent) and comes out after the end of Long Dalmahoy Road over the railway line on the Kirknewton back road. I have never used it but have seen the start and finish points many times.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@gembo I am sure I was told at one of CCE's meetings about @fimm's brave route but also warned about the big climbs -- I don't think I am sufficiently fit for that :/
Last night and this morning I took the route through Wilkieston and Ratho. There is a pavement along A71 (if you come from East Calder) and I used it -- so I avoided right turns over there this morning.
The pavement along Cliftonhall Rd disappears (narrows down to 1ft) shortly outside Wilkieston and then reappears again further on. The climb from Ratho up to Cliftonhall Rd wasn't as bad I feared and I was rewarded with some pretty views of the Pentlands!Posted 5 years ago # -
Here's my route:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1941815084
I'm assume you (like me) live in Edinburgh and work in Livingston? As gembo says, most of the traffic goes the other way. It is OK as a route. I choose it over the Long Dalmahoy Road because I feel that the sightlines are mostly better. On the LDR I worry about people driving very fast round sharp bends...
You should know that I only do that full route once or sometimes twice a week, so I don't mind a bit of extra climbing - in effect it is both a commute and a training ride. The rest of the time I bike-train-bike it.Posted 5 years ago # -
UPDATE: Clifton Rd seems to be passable and (at least) partially open now.
Last week I noticed they removed the barriers and I saw some cars turning that way. The diversion signs and 'road closed' signs are still in place though.
On Monday night I was told off for cycling on pavement outside Wilkieston (though I stopped for the lady to pass, was outside the village and right next to A71). Therefore last night I went to check Clifton Rd and it is passable. Some of the surface has been replaced, which felt very nice and smooth. I spoke to one of the regular cyclist this morning and he said that bikes could get through all the time. No need for pavement cycling any more.
Posted 5 years ago #
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