Expedition 356, to Glen Forslan, 11/6/16

I was a bit late at the church and I almost missed the boat - Amy and Isabella were there at 9.15 and left thinking there wasn't an expedition. Although I put 9.15 on the notices, I never leave before 9.30 and sometimes I might be a few minutes after 9.15. I thought this was going to be another quiet expedition, but it didn't turn out that way.
We drove to the Glenmoidart car park where we saw two stags looking at us from the top of the hill, then we set off up the track to the big fank at the top. While we stopped to look at the stone house in the fank I spotted some people ahead of us in the glen and that turned out to be the Glenmoidart crew: Donnie, Maggie and Peigi, with the other Amy carrying the gear (and Peigi from time to time), plus Rusty to protect us from bears and wolves.
I think Donnie was a little disappointed to have only girls on the expedition and he spent a lot of the time quite a way in front of or behind the team. I thought it was going to be midgy but there was a nice breeze to keep them away.
We stopped at the old bridge and everyone had a look at the burn. I have always thought this would have been a good site for a mill, but I haven't found any records of one there. The house by the river was once a prosperous place and the explorers had a look in and saw the holes in the wall for beams that once supported the top floor. The front of the house has a huge crack which might be caused by subsidence but the surviving walls don't have any sign of tilting.
Next door to the house was a small byre which Donnie investigated and then we all moved up to the steading. This was once an expensive structure, roofed with good Ballachulish slates, we looked at some and saw the distinctive pyrite crystals. We had a look inside the door and saw a bit of floor made out of railway sleepers, which might have come from the old Oban/Ballachulish line.
The steading is collapsing slowly but it was possible to see some of the inscriptions made by people who were clipping and dipping sheep there. We thought we could read 'Allan McMaster' on the door.
We stopped at the end of the steading where there was a nice breeze and had our Tunnock's wafers. The older explorers did some investigating of the ground above the steading and got a view of the chimney of the old tar boiler used for treating the sheep.
Finally we set off once more down the track, with most of the explorers taking huge risks looking at the burn while balanced on the rocks. On the way back we stopped and the two Amys were able to pick out some red sundew plants on wet ground, I explained that these plants caught insects and the explorers were able to see a midge caught by one of the plants. We could do with more of them.
Then we diverted from the path and crossed a scary suspension bridge and made our way to the house at Glenmoidart. Donnie spotted a super fungus growing on a cowpat, which I later identified as Panaeolus semiovatus.
At the house, Rusty took a rest while the rest of us enjoyed sandwiches, cakes and biscuits, thanks Amy. I hadn't taken the pens and paper, but materials were to hand and we got some drawings of the expediton. Donnie did a picture of himself with the expedition in the far distance. Maggie and Isabella did pictures of everyone in front of the steading, with some of its roof missing.
Finally the Acharacle group left, but not until we had seen the fourteen house martin nests, I hope the pine marten doesn't get them. Just as we reached the car we saw an eagle above the ridge.

John Dye