Once again, we had great weather and a very good turnout of
people, twenty-one explorers: Abbie, Alexander, Alexandria,
Allan, Benjamin, Carol-Anne, Chloe, Colin, Edward, Elliot,
Jack, John Donaldson, Loren, Lucy, Matthew, Matthew Evans,
Peter William, Rebecca, Robin, Sarah and Thomas; plus Andy,
Chris, David, John Mac., Peter, Philippa, Rhiannon and Sandra
as helpers with no less than four dogs Brucie, Ellie, Lady
and Stan. It was quite a crowd.
It took some time to get everyone loaded up and then parked
at Shielfoot, but we were soon out in the sunshine. We looked
at the river and the village, getting a bit of history about
each house and the people who lived in it.
Halfway along the village we left the road and climbed up
the hill onto the Torr where everyone had a chance to look
at the view across Kentra Moss and some explorers were able
to point out their houses in the distance. Benjamin and Thomas
found a good specimen of a woodland moss, Leucobryum, and
some of the dogs brought interesting sticks to be examined.
We followed the old track up the hill into the fort and everyone
spent some time examining the vitrified rocks in the outer
wall. The trees on the Torr are very old but they are not
very big and quite a lot of climbing was done by the more
agile explorers.
After a short break we came back down to the road and looked
at the rest of the village. Several of us went into the old
byre at 'Archie Alasdair's' house. Some of the boys found
a frog in one corner.
The rest of the expedition consisted of a walk around the
north end of the Torr and back to the cars along the old track.
Various beetles and caterpillars were noted as we went along.
Once again, getting everyone into the cars and away took a
bit of time and it was lucky that The Pantry wasn't too busy
since we filled almost every table, outdoors and in.John Dye
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