We, or at least the young explorers, missed an expedition
due to foul weather and conflicting attractions and this was
partly a re-run of the one I did a fortnight before with the
adults. We had eight explorers: Benjamin, Caleb, Caulay, Fern,
Jan Hendrick, Robbie L. Rowan and Sam; six adult helpers,
Andy, Corinne, Nicky, Pamela, Philippa and Sharon, with Ellie
as the pathfinding dog.
We parked at the Wood School entrance and carefully crossed
the road at the bottom of the armco barrier. Then we climbed
down through the trees to look at the Bronze Age cairn with
its grave among the stones. Then we quickly got back to the
road and walked up to the Forestry lay-bye at the top.
We took the path leading back down the hill towards Salen,
noting the places where it changed from a Forestry track to
an old access route. About halfway down we got to the junction
and took the right turn and climbed up the hill on the grassy
track. This was a steep hill and some of the earlier boyish
enthusiasm was starting to wear off when we got to the coloured
marker. This is a little flag at the left side of the track
and it marks an access for a quad bike. We followed this track,
keeping high on the hill to avoid the felled trees scattered
all around. After a time we found a small knoll which appeared
to be another ancient cairn and just beyond it there was a
nice grassy patch where we stopped for a wafer break.
The next section was rather tricky since the quad bike marks
had finished and we navigated through the dead trees using
deer tracks. Eventually, by good fortune I found the good
track which lead us through the broken ground and came out
at the Salen water supply tanks. By this time the group was
rather spread out and we waited to let everyone catch up.
We followed the path down and took the right branch and, after
a short time, I decided to cut across the ground hoping to
get a good route through the broken timber. Unfortunately
I didn't pick a very good route and we spent a long time struggling
through trunks and branches before we finally reached the
old Pirn Mill reservoir. We continued to the remains of the
old dam, and there the boys discovered a fascinating whirlpool,
obviously above an open pipe near the dam.
Everyone had a look at the dam and I took a few pictures before
we started following the stream down towards the village.
We saw the remains of the old sluice valve chamber and the
channel that originally fed the trough over the big waterwheel,
although there was no sign of the trough supports. From here
we had a bit of difficulty getting through the rhoddies but
eventually we all ended up at the public road, and it was
still only 12 o'clock.
There were some fine drawings this time, I think the standard
is improving. I picked out Fern's diagram of the grave in
the cairn, with the grave in the middle overhung with grass,
and people standing all round on the stones of the cairn.
It also shows trees growing on the cairn, one of the distinctive
features.
John
Dye
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