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This was our first visit to Ardery Woods, surprising because
it has some of the most interesting features in the area.
We had nine explorers: Abbie, Adrian, Allan, Chloe, James
S., Katie, Peter William, Rhiannan and Sarah; four helpers:
Chris, John E., Philippa and Sandra, and not a single dog.
One of the reasons we hadn't been before was the dangerous
road at the beginning of the walk, but we managed fine and
were soon pushing up the steep hill into the woods. There
were a great many interesting things to see: some excellent
recessed platforms, some old tracks, several ancient trees
and a good many sites of old buildings. There was also a very
black, oozy deer wallow, which the explorers miraculously
managed to avoid. We took our break at the top of the wood
where they finally identified the remains of an old bridge
over the river.
Then we left the woods and climbed to the settlement of Ardery
proper. We looked at the old buildings and, at the top of
the hill we looked at the old sheep fank where the animals
must have been held after rounding them up on Resipol. Finally
we got out onto a fine meadow on the high ground where we
were followed by a herd of goats which included a single sheep.
It really didn't take long to get back down the hill, but
everyone was pretty tired by the time we reached the Pantry.John Dye
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