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Another mid-winter expedition with poor weather, only three
explorers this time, partly due to the flu'. John Donaldson
turned up early, possibly the earliest explorer of all so
far, Robert and David John were a little later but still in
good time. Since the weather was poor - quite a strong wind
with hail showers, John decided against taking the expedition
onto the high ground and we made for Doire an Damh, or Derrydaf
as it was sometimes called.
We left the car at the EFG car park near the lochans and walked
to the first of the old houses while the wind blew fiercely
and thunder rolled all around. At one point we had a lightning
in the clouds right above us, but there was little danger
since we were walking well below the high ground.
When we reached the old ruined house by the road, John showed
the explorers the slots in the stonework used for cruck beams
to support the roof. There was no chimney so the fire must
have been in the middle of the floor.
Then we set out to examine all of the area of the old village,
which is now surrounded by the conifer plantation. First of
all we looked at a large oak tree which had an owl nesting
box recently installed, then we walked across the ground trying
to spot old lazy beds where crops could have been grown.
There was a small hill with a stone wall all around its base
and we examined all of the hill, finding the outline of one
of the houses and several old hazel trees with some rare lichens
growing on them. John tried to take a flash photograph of
some of the lichens but without much success. Robert collected
a few lichens and fungi to examine with his new micro-scanner
when we got back.
We found the remains of two more small buildings close to
the hill and finally followed the wall through the wood to
the west and discovered a very nice small building in quite
good condition. After a rest and a photograph we set off back
to the car and made soup once we got to the centre.
Since we spent a lot of time on the micro-scanner, no pictures
were drawn this time.
John
Dye
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