It was a pretty good day - a 'pet', with bad days either side.
Most of the usual explorers were off to Murrayfield to see
the rugby so we had only Lucy and Amy, with Craig and Ann
and John Mac to help.
We started at Ardtoe Pier, where we looked at the stones of
the pier and saw the marks of the 'feather and plug' system
they used in the quarry to extract the stones. Then we climbed
up to the little lookout above the pier where people used
to wait for the tide to turn in the days before they had cars
to sit in.
We climbed back down and drove to Ardtoe beach. The tide was
in so we had to go over the hill beyond the pond and across
the high ground - very exhausting. Somewhere in this part
Lucy found a vole, and her dad saw it too. On the other side
we got to a little bay which has been associated with smuggling.
John explained that the MacIains, who used to live in Ardnamurchan,
were pushed off their land and took to piracy. The last of
the MacIains were said to have been forced ashore near Ardtoe
and the little bay we looked at might have been the spot.
Leaving the bay we crossed the hills to the north until John
located a little group of birch trees. These, once we got
close to them, were seen to form a screen around a deep hole
in the ground with big steps going down. We scrambled down
the steps and John showed everyone the cave where, two smugglers
(locally known as giants) used to hide barrels of brandy.
John took the lead and went into the cave, where he jammed
his boot between two rocks and had to get his foot out of
it before if could be released - lucky we had John Mac to
prise it out!
Everyone went through the cave and later we had a look at
the rocks below with the sea swirling around. Then we set
off back to Ardtoe, stopping at the beach to look at the end
of an old spar which was cut into planks to make the stairs
at Cuil na Mara. We all got rather cold and the soup at the
Centre was very welcome.John Dye
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