This was one of the best days ever, but it started rather
poorly: there were only two explorers, Benjamin and Thomas,
when we left Acharacle but when we got to Shielfoot we found
four more waiting for us - Caitlin, Eilish, Kerry and Sarah,
so with Maureen, Morag Anne and Pamela it made quite a team,
particularly with Findlay getting his paw in for the first
time.
I expected it to be wet underfoot but the going was dry and
we made good time to the fishing hut, where everyone read
the inscriptions and then the waterfall, which was pretty
noisy, they must have had rain at Glenfinnan. There were lots
of little dark dragonflies by the river. Then we looked at
the cairn by Cairn Bay and walked round to the bottom of the
old village. Everyone saw the gravestones on the ancient cairn
and then we quickly carried on round the shoreline.
We were very lucky that the expedition coincided with a very
low tide so we were able to go right out across the sand to
the rocks, which are not often accessible. I took some photographs,
but I was nervous about the tide and we returned to the shore
for the Tunnock's wafers.
The route back was much more strenuous - I was looking for
the ruins of an old croft but we only found the cultivation
ridges. It was a steep hill and I didn't get any support for
going over to the next valley to find the old house. Eventually
we all struggled across the peat bog to the top of the hill,
and then it was all downhill and the explorers started moving
fast again.
On the way down, one of the boys found a caterpillar - a sweet
gale moth, feeding on some bog myrtle. When we got down to
the old village we located the corn kiln and the boys climbed
into the fire passage, but couldn't get right through because
it was blocked. The last features we examined were some glacial
scratches on the rocks above Cairn Bay. Everyone was pretty
tired at the end and the girls stayed in Shielfoot and did
their drawings there
John
Dye
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