‘An Intriguing Sign’

Thanks to a recent post on Twitter, my attention was drawn to this sign.

It’s in front of a former railway tunnel, Trinity Tunnel, on route 13 (Trinity to Granton) of the Edinburgh Cyclepath network, where it goes under East Trinity Road.

I was immediately drawn to the sentiment, so I went past to have a look myself today, when out for my morning run.

It was a beautiful morning - the sun was shining brightly, with hardly a cloud in the sky. The  birds, hidden in the overarching canopy of green could be heard singing their heads off - until you got to the tunnel…

So there’s actually a bit more to the sign than immediately meets the eye; it’s rather more than simply an injunction to ‘STOP’ and ‘listen to the birds’!

For if you scan the QR code on the sign it leads you to this rather lovely sound poem . It’s a meditation by Tamsin Grainger  on how passing through the tunnel - temporarily but suddenly - silences all this joyousness, as well as the threat of permanent silence posed by the prospect of extinction!