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A fantastic warm day without a cloud in the sky, the explorers
were: Amy Mulhern, Charlene, David John, Ellen MacG., John
Donaldson, Kathryn, Maxine, Robbie and Robert plus Frances
and Sheila.
The expedition was in two separate parts. The first part consisted
of walking round the perimeter of an ancient fortification
at the south end of Newtown. The explorers examined a cave
and several slates they found lying on a boulder.
We then took the cars down to the end of the road and walked
down the stream onto the beach area. The explorers examined
a concrete base which is all that remains of the house of
Jessie MacNaughton, who died in 1973, having contracted TB
in her younger days. Sheila remembered her well and was able
to tell the explorers what she looked like and how good a
baker she was. The frame of her old bed was still there and
it was clear that she must have been a small person.
We then crossed a green area said once to have been used for
grazing goats and had a look at the wrecked cars left at the
top of the beach. We also looked at Eilean Chrambait and some
ancient walls on the north side of the bay. Leaving the bay
in hot sunshine we climbed up the stream and over some ancient
lazy beds where we took a short rest and then continued through
a little clump of trees onto the top of the hill.
Crossing the hill several of the explorers sat on the old
lookout stone used for years by crofters keeping an eye on
their cattle, before crossing a small valley and then descending
to the beach on the Moidart South Channel.
There was then an intermission for everyone to swim for over
half an hour before we got ready to return. There was a small
house nearby and a yacht was in the bay close to the beach.
The return route took us along the rocks on the south shore
of Newtown Bay, and during this walk the explorers found two
pits in the rock which could have been bait mortars, next
to one pit was a flat carved circular stone which looked as
if it could have been a cover for one of the pits.
Finally we crossed the beach and walked back up the stream
to the cars which took us to Kentra where we had a drink and
listened to Robert and Robbie playing the pipes, accordion
and fiddle.
The Pictures
Everyone was pretty tired after this, very fast trip, (we
were back by one o'clock), and it took some time before the
explorers felt like attempting a drawing. However, most of
them made an effort, largely concentrating on the
swimming, which seemed to have made the most impression.
Kathryn and Ellen concentrated on the two main swimmers, Robert
and Robbie who had swum around the headland. Ellen showed
them on the beach and Kathryn showed them at the water's edge
ready to swim, with
David John close by and the sand castle with the shell in
the top. Charlene showed everyone in the water and Robert
and Robbie showed the swimming activity, complete with a shark,
not seen by the others! John Donaldson did a drawing showing
himself using a stick to measure the depth of water in one
of the bait mortar pits.
John
Dye
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