Viewing page 76 of 111

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

148.

8th July 1954. 

A dull morning with falling glass but clearing from SW. about 2 P.M. & a fine sunny afternoon from that tale 6 P.M., then more cloud.

Left hotel about 10:30 & walked S. along the Laxford road to its junction with that from Keoldale Pier & then took a lane across the moors to SE. past an old plantation of larch, oak, beech, sycamore, birch & rowan - no doubt the plantation with oak referred to in Watsonia for Jan. 1952 by Miss McCallum Webster & Peter Marler.  Then walked SE. across a curious moor of heath, &c. interspersed with potholes & knolls of limestone;  the former sheltering rowan, birch & Salix aurita, Rosa spinosissima & actually Rubus saxatilis & the knolls Dryas octopetala, Carex capillaris, Antennaria & on their margins Rosa spinosissima & Rubus saxatilis - the last usually about 6" high but sometimes brailing through the Calluna near the limestone.

Eventually reached the small burn draining the small tarn on Cnoc Leathann, where some Sax. aizoides & Carex dioica grew & in a small gorge a couple of nice little Populus tremula.  The burn is the head of the Alt Smoo, down which draws the big Loch Meadie.

All the moors about the district are covered with peat-bogs & hollows, due to the curious plan of digging fuel here & there in small patches & not along a face as in Ireland, consequently they are extremely difficult to traverse, of no interest, & waste a great deal of time.  Hence we did not arrive


149.

8.7.54, cont.  MealmEnach & district, cont.

at the tarn on shelf W. of Mealmenach until nearly 2 P.M., near which had lunch.  Some rocky scarps nearly at about 1250 feet alt. proved nearly barren, but yielded a little Vaccinium myrtillus (rare in this district!), Hieracium, Solidago, Antennaria, but gave some promise that the higher scarps might be worth visiting & so we pushed on slowly upwards & eastwards.  The tarn contained Bogbean, Sparganium, Myriophyllum & Potamogeton (polygonifolius near the edge & perhaps natans in the deeper water).  Approaching 5 P.M. we sought the sheltered NE. side of a small craggy knoll & discovered Juniperus communis & Lycopodium alpinum & after afternoon tea we went on top to see if there was more of the Lycopodium & found Arctostaphylos uva ursi & alpina scattered all over it.  This knoll is about 1/4 mile SW. of the tarn on Meall Menach (which drains S. & then W. into the Kyle of Durness) & west of the tarn's outlet.  Crossing the outlet near which Scirpus fluitans few in boggy runnels, we made for the main ridge of Meall Menach & found Arctostaphylos alpina to be common all over the rocky slopes & abundant on the top of the main ridge:  also saw much more Lycopodium alpinum & selago (& Selaginella on way up!) & found a few plants of Vaccinium Vitris Idaea.

On the main ridge there grows a very fine-leaved form of Sea Pink with short flower stems & large very "open" flowers.