Expedition 285 - 6th April 2013
The Flat Hill

 

This was another odd expedition when I didn't have a car so we started from Dalnabreac again. We had another big team of explorers: Archie, Daibhidh, Isabella, JJ, Lexi, Ollie, Parker, Robbie and Roscoe, plus Adam, Alasdair, David, Fiona, John, and Simon with three dogs to search the hills, Barney, Bramble and Toadie.

Once again, we passed the triangle where the tinkers used to camp and went through the gate to the site of the old rabbit warren. This time we stopped at a deep trench where the explorers were able to see the iron pan layer in the sandy soil.

A little further on we stopped at the only tree of the expedition, which the dogs duly greeted in the normal way. The explorers saw how there were more branches on the sunny side of the tree, and also where the bark had been rubbed away by deer getting the velvet off their antlers, and also by the Langal cows scratching themselves.

We carried on to the middle of the old croft and had a look at how the cultivation ridges had been made to run down the slope of the hill, and then we set off on the long slog up to the top of the track. On the way up I saw the first lizard of the year, but it wisely made off before the dogs arrived.

It was a bit of a scramble for me to get down the slope and cross the burn but the explorers were well in their stride. We were now on the side of the Flat Hill, which is entirely made of gravel laid down when the Loch was much higher. We climbed up carefully to see the dens of the animals on the hill before continuing to the top for our Tunnock's break.

This hill has been used in the past by countless explorers for rolling down but this time the rolling activity was rather reduced, people were happy to enjoy the sunshine, the wafers and the view.

I had found a pit dug into the top of the hill many years ago and we all formed a line and walked across to see if we could find it. I came to the conclusion that it must have been filled in because we only found a shallow pit.
We went to the bottom of the Flat Hill and looked for the spring but it was dry, so we carried on and climbed all the way to the top of the ridge, which was a struggle for some of us. Once we had all assembled and rested we followed the ridge back and climbed down to the path, stopping for a chat with Annac as we passed the house.

This was an unusual expedition since I didn't go to the Blue Parrot, so there were no drawings to show, but we did get an expedition photograph on the high ridge.

John Dye






Contact the site by email