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After the excitement of Glenuig, this was a much quieter expedition.
I had planned another route but forgot about the stalking
so Dalilea was substituted at short notice. We had only four
explorers this time: Benjamin, Fern, Rowan and Thomas (it
was half-term holiday and a lot of people were away), the
adults were John Dove, Maureen, Pamela and Sharon B. We had
Ellie and Cora to protect us, only the second time that a
dog has attended in the absence of its 'family'.
We parked carefully at Dalilea Pier and before we got into
the expedition proper we had a look at the old cart in the
pier building and a great mass of puffballs growing under
some brambles at the roadside.
We crossed the bridge and went down onto the shore where everyone
looked at the flat stone with glacial scratches on it - probably
the best example in the district but the light wasn't showing
them up well. Then we looked at the little pine wood on the
promontory where the twins had found some good dry peat the
week before. Everyone had a good look at the two big silver
firs by the bridge as we walked by on our way to the monument.
We stopped at the monument to Philip Howard and the explorers
heard how he had come to that place for a picnic before he
left for France in the First World War, where he was killed
in 1917.
We turned off the track at the gate where the funeral processions
used to pass and crossed the old fields towards the old pier,
stopping on the way to look at some cultivation near the shore.
When we reached the old pier, Cora amazed us all by her strong
swimming and aquatic retrieval skills. The boys took a break
to throw sticks in the water and everyone had a wafer at this
point.
We returned over the edge of a hill and I was glad to find
the old corn kiln where I expected it to be. It is a well-preserved
specimen but there is a birch tree growing in the wall, which
will eventually break it. The explorers climbed all over it
before we set off again towards Cuil Cottage.
Just by the field gate we found two big English oaks, with
the acorns on little stalks, or peduncles. The track at Cuil
seemed to go through the end of one of the farm buildings
and everyone wondered why there were smooth cement squares
on the walls beside the road.
Then we marched on back down the track, stopping once again
at the bridge, this time to take a walk up the stream and
find the big bog oak, which lies across the stream, much further
up than I remembered it. From this point it was a fairly short
walk back to the cars, although only two of us went as far
as the Pantry.
I have picked out Benjamin's fantastic drawing, from memory,
of St Finnan's Isle seen from the Dalilea shore.
John
Dye
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