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This was a perfect day, but as often happens, there were alternative
attractions and we only had one young explorer, Robbie L.,
to enjoy it. However, there were three adults to help: Maris,
Nicky and Philippa, and two good dogs, Ellie and Jamie, to
protect us from wild animals.
We all fitted into Maris' car and this made parking at the
top gate much easier. It was quite a quick walk down the hill
and across the rough ground to the 'steading', and we carried
straight on down a little zigzag path to the group of small
houses in the oak woods above the shore. The day was sunny
and warm and the place looked an ideal place to live, with
little fields and enclosures and the houses built to catch
the sun and get shelter from the wind. We spent ages going
round all the little stone walls and found a whole series
of buildings. Even Robbie was getting good at spotting fragments
of ancient walls.
Nice as it was, we had to push on, and we made our way down
to the beach again, coming out at the 'snail house', which
has a spiral wall. From here it wasn't far to Aultigil and
the big house with lots of fireplaces and windows. Feeling
a bit weary, we set off round the cliff path and finally reached
the stile at Egnaig, where Jamie had some difficulty but was
able to wriggle under the fence at a convenient spot. We stopped
for our wafers at the old house of the MacDougal brothers,
which seemed in much better condition than last time we came
(the bracken was very high then).
All too soon we were packing up again and making our way along
the shore towards the causeway. We stopped at the mine and
Robbie went in twice.
Once we got out, it was just a matter of climbing back up
the hill to the car and getting our lunch at the Pantry.
John
Dye
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