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The Back Burn, Balbirnie Park (ii)

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 18th 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:-

Back Burn + Tree Roots

Part of the burn is very shaded:-

Back Burn, Balbirnie Park

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:-

Back Burn Bridge, Balbirnie Park

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

Back Burn Bridge, Balbirnie Park

The burn:-

Balbirnie Park, View from Back Burn Bridge

View from Back Burn Bridge, Balbirnie Park

The Back Burn, Balbirnie (i)

The Back Burn runs through the Balbirnie Estate on its way from the East Lomond round Markinch and on to the River Leven near Methilhill. It’s good for walks – even when you’re not cooped up by a lockdown.

After wandering under the A 92 and through a wooded glen it runs past the eighteenth hole of the golf course built over half of the estate:-

Balbirnie burn

Then down a cobbled slope:-

Burn

Under a bridge:-

Back Burn

On:-

Burn

And on:-

Back Burn

Back Burn

Before swinging under another bridge to make a turn under Stob Cross Road across to the railway line and down the east of Markinch:-

Back Burn

One of the things you might not expect to see in Fife but is present in the estate is a Giant Redwood tree:-

giant redwood tree

There’s a wildlife pond between the boarded path and the redwood as seen from near the burn:-

A Giant Redwood in Fife

Balbirnie Estate has a lot of rhododendron plants. They’re just about on the point of coming into flower this year. This was from 2019:-

Rhododendron, Balbirnie, Fife

Burn and Bridge, Maspin Glen, Falkland, Fife

Son of the Rock Acres backs on to a former estate whose ‘big house’ has been turned into a hotel. There are extensive woodland walks round the place even though most of it has long since been converted into a golf course. A burn, the Back Burn, flows through it and on through the town of Markinch before eventually joining the river Leven.

I’ve just realised I’ve not really posted any pictures from the estate mainly because the good lady tends to use them.

Anyway, not far away – about three miles – at the edge of the village of Falkland, lies another estate through which runs another burn, which possibly itself feeds into the Back Burn. A signpost at the bottom of the path points to Maspin Glen.

This is that burn:-

Burn at Maspin Glen, Falkland, Fife

And this is a bridge over it carrying one of the estate’s paths:-

Bridge Over Burn at Maspin Glen, Falkland, Fife

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