The previous few days had been
absolutely awful and the forecast was not good. Under the
circumstances we were lucky to get four stalwart explorers:
Fern, Frederik, Jan Hendrick and Rowan plus five adult helpers,
Christoph, Howard, Pamela, Philippa and Sharon, with Ellie
to look in the dark corners.
I split the expedition into two, first we parked at 'Plate
Rock' car park and carefully crossed to the old Kinlochmoidart
Fank. This had been built by adapting several buildings and
linking them together. We examined it carefully, outside and
in, and looked at the boiler and the shearing platforms. We
then had a look at the little house by the shore and its beach
clearance for pulling the boat up.
The tide was just out far enough for us to get along the shore
and we walked round the headland to the next bay which had
another big enclosure, probably used before the present fank
was built.
Back to the shore again and we carried on until we got to
a bay with a fast flowing burn. Along the burn was a layer
of clay with ancient wood fragments in it. A lot of us got
a bit muddy but nobody got wet and we continued up the old
path where Harold Drummond chased the badger.
Above the path was the old village of Kylesbeg, a group of
fields and houses, with a very puzzling group of big stone
cairns. Then it was back to the cars and up to the top gate
for our walk around Kylesmore, taking our Tunnocks wafers
in a hurry as we went.
We started Kylesmore with a visit to the big corn kiln, which
everyone examined closely. Then we did a circuit of the old
buildings, finishing at the huge steading where the explorers
busied themselves peeling sticks. Right at the end, I spotted
some houses we had never visited before, but it was too late
and everyone was pretty tired when we finally reached the
pantry.
They produced some nice drawings, I picked out Jan Hendrick's
front view of the corn kiln, showing the opening for the fire.
John
Dye
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