Danny's turn.
Saturday 8th June, 2013
We chose a longer local walk for Danny because I wanted to see whether my back could cope with a proper hike next week.
We walked up the glen road to the end of the tarred road and then continued along the track by the river, through pheasant territory. It was pleasantly cool under the trees but we knew the walk would get hotter as the morning progressed and we ran out of shade.
After passing the old shepherd's house we stopped to take photos of the little waterfall but it was a waste of time because there was hardly a trickle of water. Danny gets very bored by photography and stood in the shade by the path - yawning.
Then we walked up towards the old quarry. There were patches of bluebells everywhere. They don't seem to have been bothered by the snow in March. Apart from the flowers under the big trees in Ballaglass, the bluebells seem to be doing better than ever this year. Perhaps we are reaping the benefit of last year's cool damp summer.
Before we reached the stream, I stopped to take a photo of the view down the glen behind us.
The railway sleepers, which were laid across the stream as an informal bridge last year, have gone - either washed away or deliberately moved - but it was easy to cross the stream as the water level was so low after the long spell of warm, dry weather. I wanted to take photos of the pool at the old quarry. It has silted up so much during the past twenty years that it can hardly be called a pool now. It is really just two streams either side of a bank of slate chippings and debris which have washed down in floods over the years.
When we first moved to Glen Auldyn we were told that people used to swim in the pool. Now there is hardly enough water for a little black dog to get wet. I was too late to get a photo of Danny lying down in the water to cool off - but I did get one of him trying to shake himself dry.
We retraced our route back to the stream and stopped for a brief rest in the dense shade of a horse chestnut - the last shade until we reached the trees at the bottom of the Millennium Way. Then we set out up the hillside aiming to reach the Millennium Way near the gate above Slieau Managh plantation. We took a fairly direct route uphill and soon we were well above the chestnut trees down near the stream.
There were some inquisitive spectators watching us struggle up the hill.
As we approached the Millennium Way we stopped to watch some hen harriers. First we saw a female circling overhead. She was being unusually vocal - and then a male flew past. They seemed to be having a conversation. We saw a couple more, females I think, in the distance. They seemed to be circling over Slieau Managh plantation - perhaps they nest there in the heather and gorse between the blocks of trees. As we walked down the Millennium Way we saw another male flying low over the edge of a field - apparently hunting.
It was hot and dusty on the footpath. Some work had been done to repair the path since we were last up there - and a drainage ditch had been created along the east side of the path. Now all they need to do is work out a way of keeping the scrambler bikes on the official path and off of the surrounding heather. The view to the north was rather hazy after all the dry weather. We need some rain to wash the air.
We didn't walk down as far as the main track up through Skyhill plantation but turned up a mountain bike path.
It was quite steep in places but worth the effort. I was delighted to come across an obliging speckled wood butterfly. All the butterflies we met earlier in the walk were flying fast and had refused to pose for photos. They weren't a very exciting assortment - mainly unidentified small whites, a couple that I would guess were wall browns but I am not sure (they were too orange to be meadow browns), and another speckled wood. And I nearly forgot the small heaths up on the hill.
Then we returned home - after stopping briefly above the Ballagarrow fields to take the obligatory photo of Ramsey . . . still shining by the sea.
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