Old Footsteps in the Snow

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 14 Dec 2022

Although these footsteps look recent it is certain that they are at least three, but perhaps four days old. Snow first fell in this part of Scotland at around 5am on the Saturday before the Wednesday this picture was taken. There were further small flurries throughout Saturday and Sunday and it has since grown increasingly colder, turning the snow into ice. I like to think that these footsteps were made by people starting and finishing their shifts at the nearby Morrisons supermarket during the first snowfall, but obviously have nothing to base this on! This tarmacked path is part of the National Cycle Route 75, and this section links two supermarket car parks - Tesco and Morrisons - and must be about a mile and a half long. The bit pictured is marked as a track on a 1960s OS map; the section immediately South of here, behind camera, roughly follows the route of an old railway spur that used to transport coal from a colliery in Blackburn to a long-gone station, Bathgate Lower.

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