Expedition 118 - 21st August 2004
Shielfoot and the Torr


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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