This one should
have been the second half of the last one; it turned out to
be a little shorter than expected but we used our time well.
We had a four explorers, good considering the weather: Daibhidh,
Fern, JJ and Rowan, with three adults, John, Sharon and Simon,
plus three dogs, Basil, Bramble and Fizz.
It was absolutely tipping it down when we reached Glenuig
Hall and we all sheltered in the doorway. Everyone was in
over-trousers this time, eventually the rain got a lot lighter
and we set off into the wood next to the hall.
This was only our second visit to this wood, it’s a
lovely place and the way in is up a super stone staircase.
Once into the wood we followed the path round the coast, noting
many signs of old cultivation – it clearly wasn’t
always a wood.
The going was rather wet in places and the adults and explorers
examined the ground along the shore for signs of otters. We
found a few tracks used by otters and a possible den and eventually
we found some otter droppings near the shore, but we didn’t
see the otters, although Fern spotted a seal.
We finally reached the nice bay we stopped at last time, it
had a group of old Scots Pine round it and some interesting
heaps of stones at the top of the beach. The explorers spent
a lot of time on the shore, although it was rather chilly.
We stopped again for our Tunnock’s wafers and soon pressed
on through some very thick dead bracken to the top of the
hill and returned along the ridge towards the hall. We found
the rock shelter we had seen last time, but the sleeping bag
wasn’t there any more. A little further on we came to
a beautiful clear area under the trees with signs that a lot
of deer had recently been sheltering there, I don’t
think any of us saw one, although they must have been close.
We picked our way carefully down the wet slope and back down
the steps to the hall. Since we had some time to spare, I
opened up the History House and the explorers spent some time
looking at old photographs of the area before we drove back
to the Loch Shiel Hotel.
There were not many drawings this time. I have picked out
a bit of Fern’s seascape showing the seal swimming.
John Dye
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