|
A perfect day but only one explorer, Alexander, with Mairi
and Rebecca to assist and not a dog in sight. We assembled
at the Triangle, but Alexander had got into expedition mode
early on, having seen a fox and an eagle on the way there.
Before we left we saw some frogspawn and tadpoles and even
a squirrel, so our luck was in.
Mairi parked skillfully at the post box and we set off in
bright sunshine but over rather wet and soft ground. We followed
the river to the falls, stopping to look at the collapsed
remains of the fishing hut, alas the writing on the door was
no longer visible.
We followed the fishermens' track round to the Cairn Pool
below the falls and then took a careful route through the
rocks to reach the shore. Quite near this place is a small
shelter where Donald Stewart used to store his gear, but Mairi
told us that the shelter was originally built long ago by
her father. We spent some time looking around the shoreline
and I noticed a series of large stones which seemed to have
been placed in position. Eventually we worked out that they
were mooring points for the boats of the fisherman at Old
Shielfoot, possibly they have never been recorded.
We carried on along the shore, stopping to look at the remains
of a building on the shore and a series of small stone buildings,
which probably held the gear for the fishing boats. By this
time I was getting requests for a break so we stopped for
our Tunnock's wafers in one of the old houses, possibly the
one occupied by a fisherman whose young wife died in tragic
circumstances many years ago.
Returning to the shore we carried on and soon came to the
old graveyard, which I had failed to find last time. This
group of graves, like the old graveyard in Strontian, are
in an ancient cairn, I think we spotted some curb stones around
the edge. There seems to be the outline of a small building
on the top. We then moved up the hill to look at the corn
kiln, which was photographed with Alexander standing inside
to show how deep it was, the graveyard is in the background.
There was still time to spare to we crossed the shore to the
island opposite Dorlin Pier. It is on the map as Eilean Uaine,
which Dwelly indicates means the Green Island, not to be confused
with St Finan's Isle in Loch Shiel. We were able to have a
look around and I was surprised to see cultivation ridges
on the highest part.
Finally we walked back across the now-exposed beach. I noticed
some strange wiggly tracks across the sand and we eventually
worked out they were caused by stones attached to floating
bladder wrack which had been blown across the beach as the
tide fell.
We got back to the Tea Room and Alexander was under some pressure
to produce drawings for the record. He did a plan view of
the corn kiln, showing the two ends of the tunnel in which
the fire was lit. This being the 350th expedition, I got a
free lunch, courtesy of the Tea Room. Thank you Heather.
John
Dye
|
|
.JPG)
.jpg)
