The Back Burn, see here and here, runs through the old Balbirnie estate and on past Markinch.

Just near where we live it passes through a declivity. The burn isn’t easily spotted in this photo:-

It’s just to the bottom at the right here:-

It flows over some rocks about halfway along:-

There are some flatter stretches too:-

Then it forms a barrier cutting off the golf course’s 18^th fairway from the green.

Further on, looking back from beyond the golf course’s car park, you can see a second old bridge across the burn which was not undermined in the floods I mentioned here.

Another cascade:-

Flowers by the burn’s side:-

Trees by burn side:-

You can see the bridle path crossing in this one:-

Balbirnie House (Balbirnie House Hotel) in winter. 28/1/21 to be precise:-

A week or so later, snow had fallen:-

Snow on Balbirnie Golf Course:-

On weekdays and Saturdays, if we’re not on an excursion or supermarket shopping, we normally walk through Balbirnie Park on our way to Markinch for the newspaper. Usually by the path which flanks Balbirnie Golf Club’s front nine holes by the road up to/down from the hotel.

We vary our Sunday walk.

Sometimes we go on what we call the loop, round the other side of the golf course from that path and past a field near the Markinch roundabout where there are usually some horses grazing, then up by the main road (safely behind the old Balbirnie Estate wall) till the path turns back onto the access road which leads to our house.

At others we go up by Balbirnie golf club’s back nine holes.

Last January not much play would have been possible. Or if possible, not easy. The flooded parts had iced up:-

Mind you the water hazard might have been a bit less so. (Not that playing off the ice would have been advisable):-

In January we had a cold spell. Our walk down to Markinch to get the newspaper was made just a bit more hazardous. The short cut we had adopted during Covid times – over the path by Balbirnie Golf Club’s practice putting green – was very treacherous:-

The floods I featured earlier iced over completely.

Ice skaters/ice hockey players took advantage of the frozen pond:-

Last winter was terrible for rain. Balbirnie Park grounds flooded in part once more.

This was on 8/1/2/2020 on the lower part of the golf course:-

Two days later the pond had expanded:-

On the 19^th it looked like this:-

A few days later the floods had encroached on the road up past the golf course.

Last August there was severe flooding in Balbirnie Park. The Back Burn even overflowed by Balbirnie Golf Club’s eighteenth green, probably due to that tree trunk stuck at the bridge. Part of the revetments had been washed away:-

Between Golf Club’s clubhouse and Balbirnie House Hotel the road was flooded:-

The area just at Balbirnie House (and Hotel) which had flooded in February 2020 did so again:-

The old Balbirnie Estate had some extensive grounds. About half of these were converted to a golf course. The rest makes up what is now Balbirnie Park.

The back burn runs from the upper part of the former estate – now sold off for housing – between the golf course’s 18^th fairway and green before wending through the wooded area of the Park.

There are some exposed tree roots on the burn’s banks in the upper estate:-

Part of the burn is very shaded:-

We often take a walk through the woods and beside the burn. There are three wooden bridges over the burn after it passes the golf course. This is one of them:-

Close-up. (The wooden superstructure on this has recently been replaced):-

The burn:-

Balbirnie House was the “big” house nearest to Markinch and was home to the Balfour family before being sold off in 1969. It is now a hotel, the Balbirnie House Hotel and the estate grounds are now Balbirnie Park.

Nearly every morning I walk past it and through its grounds (more than half of which is now a golf course) on my way to Markinch to pick up the Guardian.

This is a photo of the hotel from just over a year ago:-

There had been reasonably heavy rain and a pool of water had collected beside the footpath which skirts the estate road leading upo to the hotel. This was followed by a freeze:-

Lower down the estate road, nearer to Markinch, this area of the golf course had also been flooded and frozen:-

On the other side of the estate road this part of Balbirnie Park remained flooded for almost all of 2020:-

This memorial to the five boys from Markinch who died in the Ibrox Disaster on 2/1/1971 lies directly opposite the entrance to Balbirnie Park.