Expedition 10 - 22nd October 1998
Egnaig

The expedition to Egnaig was the biggest of all so far, both in the number of members and in the distance covered. Thanks to Frances and Major Lindsay, we were able to take the cars down to the Causeway and start from there. The members were Amy, Claire, Colin, David, Frances, Frazer, Grant, Iseobail, Jack, John, Kirsten, Lily, Lucy, Margaret, Maxine, Robin and Sharon.

We walked down the beach past the Causeway and all of the younger members got into the old lead mine. Then we walked to the house at Aultisgil.

From there we tried with moderate success to follow the old path to Egnaig. At times it became quite steep and two of the boys had minor falls.

We stopped at the old house of the MacDougall brothers for a break before going on to the old Egnaig graveyard.

The expedition then explored old Egnaig village, going into many of he old buildings. While we were in one of the buildings we had a fine view of two sea eagles soaring over the ridge above us. We also found a very large oak tree which needed either four of the girls or three of the boys to reach around.

Finally we crossed back to the beach and walked back to the Causeway, undertaking a tough climb up the rocks on the way.

We arrived back in Acharacle well after one o'clock to enjoy lovely soup at Iseobail's house before going to the Day Care Centre to draw the pictures.

The Pictures
The day had been a long one, but after the leisurely lunch, many of the members found it difficult to decide on a single feature to illustrate the expedition.

I gave them copies of pictures of the MacDougall's house and many of them based their pictures on these: Jack (J. J.F.A.), Claire, Lucy and Lily made fairly straightforward pictures, Lily included the two eagles at the top. Margaret was more ambitious, showing the croft as it was in the picture in 1935 and as it is now, broken and deserted. Maxine made a more colourful interpretation, including the brown chickens I had told them about during the visit.

The boys concentrated on the ruined crofts, Grant's picture showing a ruined house on a hill with broken stumps was very effective and captured the feel of the place, Frazer's picture, showing a two-storey structure, was clearly Aultisgil, as, probably, was Colin's since it was the only house with a chimney on an end wall.

Colin also pictured his sore thumb, a souvenir of the steep climb. Finally Robin showed the ruined houses below the hills with the eagles soaring above.

John Dye