Turf Zone – DirletonKirk
So, here I am looking forward to a day at the East Lothian coast for a spot of turfing, I’ve collected the car from the garage following an MOT (passed with only a sidelight bulb required), full service and front brake discs and pads, of course, parting with the princely sum of £800 for the privilege, when I see a note at the foot of the invoice stating in CAPITAL letters, timing belt is overdue for replacement. Now, this was my mum’s car, a 2015 Ford Fiesta inherited by self when she very wisely decided to stop driving at the age of 84-years-old. I enquired about the cost of this. Wait for it, are you sitting down, a whopping £1200, and that’s not a main dealer garage. FGS!
Now, the car is over 10-years old and the timing belt is a scheduled item, but it’s only done 18,000 miles. The recommended interval is 10-years or 150,000 miles. What to do? Fork out £1200 or leave it as it is and hope for the best? Oh, the joys of motoring. I guess we have been sheltered from these costs as, until we retired, we had new cars on lease schemes and never kept them long enough to run into repairs costs like this one. Oh well, better go turfing and put this to the back of my mind, for the moment at least.
My targets today were two new zones, AyeAyeSkipper and YellowArcher, on the coast between Gullane and North Berwick, opposite Archerfield, both unique to me and I was keen to tick them off the turf to-do list. I also had another reason to visit this area. I’d come across a short video about some rocks called septarian nodules, basically stones with a network of quartz veins which gives them their other name, lightning stones or thunder stones. I recall coming across something similar in this area so wanted to see if I could find some.
Starting point was Dirleton, parking beside the old church and, of course, taking the associated zone DirletonKirk, then slopped and slithered my way down the footpath towards the coast. The path was incredibly muddy today, following recent rain, and I’m glad I left the bike behind. It would have been faster but mud like this just get everywhere and isn’t fun. Add to that a bloody cold east wind and intermittent heavy rain was well.
My next zone was called InTheNavy, a turfname I was struggling to decipher at first. Couldn’t see any naval connection on the maps, so decided the zone maker must be a Village People fan. It was only later when looking at Google maps that I saw the connection, a nearby street is called The Village. No, I reckon the zone maker is using that as cover for being a Village People fan.
Zone ChickenPark was next, located near the parking area at Yellowcraigs, and also located slap-bang in the middle of the suggested doggy-doo area. But thankfully I managed to make it through without encountering any Richard the Turds! Next zone was FidraView, and having left the trees behind I’m now facing the full force of that cold easterly wind and driving rain. Why am I turfing today? A good question.
The path now takes me to the west, wind and rain t my back, past the posh houses belonging to those with more money than sense. To be honest, I’m always disappointed with these houses, they may look fantastic but today the place was grey, drab and lifeless, soulless even. Not a single person was seen, not a single light on anywhere, in fact it might be taken as abandoned had it not been for one solitary gardener sweeping sand from a patio. Seems kind of pointless to spend millions and leave them empty!
Zone AyeAyeSkipper was next and could I take the zone? I could not. Tried all the usual tricks, approach from different direction, GPS on and off, restarting the app, even restarting the phone, all to no avail. The phone signal was 5G and 3/5 bars but looked like a data connection issue. Decided to leave for the return journey. Same with zones CheapShacks and YellowArcher. However, I did manage to take them all later on the way back.
Being unable to take any zones, I decided to forget about zones PropMemorial and SeeEyebroughy, and starting looking for some lightning stones and found plenty in the cobble beach with some nice examples on the sandy areas of the beach. Not sure they are exactly the same as septarian nodules but still quite attractive. You really need to cut them open with a diamond saw to see the pattern inside for the full effect. I would call them elvish rune stones, if I was able to name them.
Time for lunch and some shelter from the wind and rain. I knew just the spot, a nice cosy cave! There are two caves here, not all that easy to spot and easy to miss if you don’t know that are there. Older maps show their location as Hanging Rocks and they would have been carved out by the sea when sea levels were higher than today. Receding sea levels have left them high and dry and a great spot with a picnic lunch. A cave with a view as well. Well worth a visit and a good spot for a new zone! Hint, hint!
And that was that. A nice, if rather wet and windy day at the seaside. Only turf task remaining with the head home via Port Seton to pick off a turfer unique I’ve been meaning to get. Goes by the name of RetroExplorer, a fairly recent convert to this fine game. This brings my total for 2026 to a whopping 4 and my overall total to 608. The zone I stopped at was Clockenzie. Bye for now.
Copyright ©2026 Gary Buckham. All rights reserved.
