|
At last the weather was starting to improve and, although
it was not sunny all the time, it was good for walking. We
had a team of seven explorers, two helpers and three dogs:
Amy, David John, Eilish, Iain, John Donaldson, Robin, Robert,
Mairi and Tracy, plus Megan the spaniel and Quincy and Mist,
the collies.
We parked at Mingarry Hall and John showed everyone a map
of the village showing the old 'park' enclosure and where
the old shelter woodlands were on the hill, we were to visit
two of these later. Then we went through the gate and into
the wood, climbing the track up to the first gate, where David
John counted the rings on a cut spruce tree, there were 97
rings. John then retrieved a broken bottle from under a tree
stump - it was and old Codd's bottle with the name P. MacFarlane
Chemist Fort William on it. We continued up the hill and took
a detour through a little glade with a row of old oak trees
in it.
At the top gate, John pointed out the remains of a house next
to the road, badly damaged by the forestry plough. We went
through the gate and down to an old building on the east side
of the burn which had a stream pool next to it and which John
thought could have been the blacksmith's house, it had a small
enclosure next door which might have been for horses. Next
to the house was a very straight section of stream which had
a wall along one bank.
The expedition then moved up onto the High Mingarry ground,
stopping for a snack in a field above the road. As we moved
through the village we were noting all the houses as we came
to them. We carried on through the village until we reached
the old Douglas Fir which had been struck by lightning in
December 1999. There was some sign of growth of new bark along
the scarred trunk. There were lots of old tree stumps around
showing that this was once one of the shelter woods.
Then we walked back along the head dyke until we got to Domnhuil
Dubh Laidir's Bridge. John explained the story and the explorers
examined the old ford and then clambered through the bridge
and made a wish.
Once across the bridge we continued along the head dyke until
we reached the remains of a second of the old shelter woods.
John pointed out a Corsican pine growing close to the new
plantation.
Among the stumps were a series of little mounds and everyone
had a try at guessing what they could have been for. We found
some very primitive houses nearby and one good house by the
deer fence. Climbing through the deer fence we examined the
row of four good houses in the old village and finally followed
the old track to the strange hilltop building before returning
to the main track and then back to Acharacle for soup.
The Pictures
Eilish was clearly impressed by the big old oak trees with
their precariously balanced dead branches above her and her
picture makes them look very insecure, I think she added herself
on the bridge as an afterthought, The bridge was the scene
of John Donaldson's picture, with everyone shouting and trying
to climb out of the ravine, Amy showed the sun's rays in the
top left corner, with a dog and someone standing in the water
at the top of the ravine.
Robert and lain drew rather sketchy composite views of the
expedition showing, the three dogs, an old croft, the struck
tree and Domhnuil Dubh Laidir's bridge with its big central
boulder, Mairi showed one of the big fallen trees in an old
shelter wood with its root plate and spreading branches. David
John showed a two-page view of the blacksmith's house with
the blacksmith working inside and horses in the enclosure
and a man putting a cart wheel into the stream
John
Dye
|
 |
