The first 2014
expedition to get nice weather; we had a slight problem because
many of the young people were participating in an Easter Event
in the afternoon so this had to be a fast trip. We had nine
explorers: Alexander, Daibhidh, Fern, Isabella, Jamie, JJ,
Maighsi, Roanna and Rowan, with Adam, John, Kate, Phil, Mairi
and Sharon as helpers plus Bramble, Cody and Monty investigating
the peat pools.
We started from the Forestry entrance, which was just about
big enough for all the cars and made our perilous way back
along the road to the old Telephone Exchange, where I told
the explorers there used to be a hut for the Observers to
leave their bikes and brew up their tea. Fortunately I spotted
a nice hole under the fence, which the dogs were pleased to
use since it avoided the indignity of being lifted over. The
rest of us climbed carefully over the barbed wire using my
special roll of camel skin, kept specifically for this route.
Once across the fence the expedition faced a long, hard climb
before the gradient became easier and we could see the Trig
Point and the line of poles that once carried the phone line
to the Observer Post.
We were fairly spread across the hill but we all assembled
at the Trig Point and got our breath before crossing a boggy
patch to the Observer Corps Post. I think the explorers were
disappointed that it wasn’t bigger but at least we had
good weather, the conditions for the poor observers who had
to man it constantly throughout World War 2, must have been
grim.
One of the Observers had been Hugh MacDonald, ‘The
Gamie’, who told me a lot about the place: it was low
and had a corrugated iron roof, the Observer on duty had to
stand outside. At the back was a slightly drier area which
held the telephone which they could use to contact their headquarters
in Oban. There were two teams of Observers: The A shift were
full-time and got paid more, the B shift were part time, working
three nights a week from 6pm to 2 am. Hugh was on the B Shift
but then he had to be out at 6 am to work with the Road Squad.
There were always two men on duty.
In the whole war they only spotted one German plane –
a Heinkel bomber which was reported by Hugh Cameron, Ardtoe,
who was (by my calculations) a great-grand-uncle of Alexander.
We spent some time at the Post, eating our Tunnock’s
wafers and looking at the view, but all too soon it was time
to return and I took a different route, leading down to the
old pine trees. One tree had fallen and it had a smooth branch
where the deer had been rubbing off the velvet from their
antlers. We looked at one of the telephone poles and it seemed
to have been made in 1937. There were lots of primroses to
be seen but we didn’t hear a cuckoo.
We successfully negotiated the fence once more and returned
to the Tea Room early enough for everyone to get fed and finish
a drawing before the egg-hunting in the afternoon. We got
some nice pictures and I have picked out JJ’s drawing
of the fallen tree where the deer rub the velvet from their
antlers, you can see the patches on the upright branches.
John Dye
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