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156.

10th July 1954. 

A fine morning & evening after rain at night but spoiled by several hours rain & mist where we were from 1.3 till around 4 P.M.  Left hotel in car at 10.30 & got dropped at Moine Lodge on road from Durness to Rhiconich.  Walked across the moor to SE. towards N. end of the Foinaven range & found the going very heavy owing to the hundreds of swampy pools, as well as lochans, which could not be seen in advance & had to be avoided.  Crossed a rocky ridge about 12.30 noon on which grew Salix herbacea, Arctostaphylos alpina & nearly A. ura ursi.  Reached the base of the main cliffs below Ceann Garbh & had lunch about 1PM.  Soon found lots of Alchemilla alpina, Beech Fern, a little Thalictrum alpinum, Saussurea alpina & Saxifraga stellaris.  Shortly after lunch mist gathered & rain commenced so that any hope we had of searching the higher cliffs vanished & we had to content ourselves with working E. along the base of the N. cliffs of Ceann Garbh where we found Cornus suecica in several places & in flower;  Trollius, Saussurea, Oxyria digyna, Carex rigida, Juncus trifidus (very fine clumps on rock shelves);  Thalictrum alpinum (rare), Alchemilla alpina (rarer than lower down!), Hieracia, Beech Fern, Empetrum sp.?;  Lycopodium alpinum (in great quantity locally);  Juniperus communis.

The only insect noted during the day was a ♀︎ Bombus jonellus near Moine Lodge at 6 P.M.  Saw a Fox on the moor.


157.

10.7.54, cont.  Foinaven & Moine Lodge area, cont.

Being unable to go up to the upper crags because of the mist & wet & because Daisy had hurt her ankle in a hole we started back at about 3.15;  had tea in shelter at 4 P.M. & reached Moine Lodge at 6.10:  then walked slowly down the road for about a mile before meeting the hotel car at 6.30 & so back to hotel at 7 P.M.  On return journey across the moor - by quite a different route from that pursued in the forenoon saw much Arctostaphylos uva-ursi growing on damp ground amongst quite thick Calluna & another patch of A. alpina on a large rock projecting above the peat;  in a hollow between rocks a clump of Geum rivale & in the tarns much Bogbean & the tall upright from of Ranunculus flammula which fringes many of the lochans & grows in quite a foot of water.  Finally just as we approached the road, 1/4 mile SE. of Moine Lodge, we found several patches of Carex pauciflora in boggy hollows between rocky ridges, draining S. into head of Lochan Tarbhach Mor, for which sedge I had been looking all day.

On outward journey Daisy found two plants of Listera cordata peeping out of short Calluna.  Much Juniper was seen scattered about on the rocky crags or even growing in the bog:  all of this was obviously J. communis except one small very prostrate plant (sprig taken) which resembled (but I do not think was) J. sibirica.