| A really awful day, I was surprised
to see anybody, but we still got a reasonable turnout: three
stalwart explorers, Fern, Robbie L., and Rowan, plus eight
adults, Andrew, Dorothy Anne, Howard, Pamela, Philippa, Richard
L., Sam W., and Sheila W., plus Ellie as the guard dog.
The wind and rain were ferocious so we started by looking
at the sheltered area around the electricity sub-station.
Everyone crossed the burn and the fence to see the ‘nameless’
cairn, which may have had something to do with a murder, or
perhaps not.
Then we optimistically got back into the cars and drove up
to the forestry car park to start the proper expedition. The
first part was examining the big trees along the road, after
which we climbed above the road and followed the boundary
fence along towards the old telephone exchange. This fence
has a strand of barbed wire along the top and I remembered
to take the camel skin cover which we put over it so that
we could climb over (except Ellie who suffered the indignity
of being lifted over).
Once on the uphill side we set off through the wood and eventually
reached the first of the old telegraph poles that carried
wires to the observation post. The numbers cut into the pole
indicated that it was put in around 1947, so the observation
post was clearly maintained for some years after the war.
We couldn’t find numbers on the other poles and we didn’t
want to hang about as it was blowing the rain in our faces.
We clawed our way to the top of the hill and made straight
for the little brick structure on the top.
Conditions at the post must have been spartan – there
was no roof to protect the observers, the small covered section
was to protect the telephone, record books and instruments.
With the gale whistling around us we got a good idea of what
it must have been like maintaining a continuous watch in this
bleak place.
Before we went down, we crossed to the Trig Point where Rowan
sat on the top and was very nearly blown off. I tried to explain
what the structure was used for, but my words were lost in
the wind, so we set off for the shelter of the lee side of
the hill. Once we were in the calm air we stopped for a wafer
break by a fallen tree just where we had stopped on the last
visit on 1st May 2004. While we rested I explained who the
observers were and how two teams covered the observations.
They maintained a watch all through the war but the only aircraft
they spotted was a single Heinkel bomber.
Once we had rested we had a look along the hill and found
a spring with the remains of a primitive building beside it.
The rich patches of bracken were growing on areas of level
ground which had probably once been cultivated. We carried
on to the bottom of the hill and looked at the old telephone
exchange before crossing the fence once more and returning
to the cars.
There was still some time left so we had a short excursion
up the forestry track to the viewpoint, although the view
was rather limited. Rowan found some well-developed frogspawn
in a pool by the track.
Once we returned to the Pantry and warmed up, the explorers
turned out some nice pictures. I picked out Rowan’s
view of the observation post and the telegraph poles, with
the fallen tree below.
John
Dye
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