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The forecast was for showers and they were wrong again, we had
a nice morning. Only two explorers, Alexander and JJ, but the Feis
party had been held the night before, we also had three helpers,
John. Mairi and Phil and three dogs, Brambles, Monty and Skye (the
most dogs we've had since 2014).
We started from the sandy beach at Samalaman and the dogs were delighted
to be able to run in the woods. Making our way along the familiar
path we carried on until we reached the big field, where I stopped
to give a short demonstration of the amazing mechanism of the orchid
flower, which glues little stalks containing pollen onto the head
of a bee followed by the stalks bending so that it will fertilise
a flower after it has flown for some distance.
While we were stopped for the demo, we noticed a super new track
leading to a house site above the shore. We had a look at the site
and the rocks and I think we found a bait mortar used for preparing
crushed shellfish as ground bait for anglers. There were also some
fairly good glacial scratches on the rocks, and some fairly big
rocks which could have been thrown up by a tsunami.
We returned to the track and crossed the burn by the old sleeper
footbridge and walked past the big fank with large Evernia lichens
on it. Carrying on we passed the wall which includes some very big
stones, someone took a long time to make it.
Through the gate and up the short hill, which has now been cleared
of the fallen tree, thanks whoever you are, and finally reached
the stone seat. The last time we were here it was winter and we
were all surprised at how much the birch trees had grown: a few
years ago the seat was on an open hill and now it seems to be in
a wood.
The path down to the cave was still easy to follow and we soon found
ourselves facing the cave with a view across to Rhu Arisaig. JJ
had remembered to bring a torch and both the explorers managed to
struggle right through the narrow cave and out at the other end.
They didn't see any bats this time but I think they found some ticks.
We stopped for a photograph and our well-deserved Tunnock's wafers
and didn't stay long before setting off back along the path. This
time we only went as far as the fank and then took the new track
up to the Smirisary road. There were lots of sheep in the field
so the dogs were all back on leads.
Finally we walked back along the road past Samalaman House, stopping
to look at the building known as the monk's toilet and also an old
iron gate with a very fine catch. As we went round the corner we
met a flock of sheep coming towards us and we all stood to one side
while they went past. I had a word with Eoghan about the little
sheds next to the big house and he said that they were stores, one
still had coal in it, and the one at the end was a little workshop.
After the sheep had passed we carried on down to the beach and the
cars, Alexander and Mairi were on their way to the Fort and John
and JJ were busy gardening so it was only Phil, Monty and myself
who went to the tearoom.
John
Dye
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