Lathallan walk .....

30th April 2018 (Monday) .... 08.00     Trust me to ‘sleep in’ on a morning

Lathallan reed filter beds.

when we have a ‘wall to wall’ blue sky;  unfortunately there’s also a frisky northeast wind with a wintry feel to it.    It’s bonnie but cool, but will be warm sheltered from the wind;  a morning for walking in the woods.    Or working in the garden?  
   

19.00    It was a nice morning for walking in the woods, sheltered from the wind:  so I went to the beach.   Yes, it was cold in the Northerly wind:  that said I saw one man wearing shorts.   He must have been a visitor:  locals wear, and are recognisable, by the colour of their anoraks, when the East wind doth blow.   However after breakfast I decided to take the car up to Lathallan, ‘moor up’, then walk to the reed filter beds;  this would be a ‘sheltered from the wind’ walk. 

Lathallan is not a walk I’ve done often, usually I bike to Lathallan.    It turns out to be a pleasant walk down an entrance drive to what would have been Lathallan House/School.     No sign of that building remains.

The Den Burn alongside the filter beds... and before contamination. 

When I got to the filter beds I found a couple of scientists from SEPA checking them, because someone had reported the colour of the burn below the beds.    Right enough;  the Den Burn, which runs alongside the beds is crystal clear, until water from the beds joins the burn:  the burn then is noticeably dirtier, though not as dirty as it looked last week.   The problem most likely has been  caused by an excess of water in the mine workings during the winter, and the fact that one third of the reed beds were cleared in the autumn, and have only now began to regenerate.   Hopefully the matter will sort itself out during a long, sweltering hot summer.

I enjoyed a walk through a spruce wood on the way back to the car, during which I met

The Den Burn below the filter beds.

a man out walking his dogs, a Great Dane, and wee one.   You could see that the Great Dane had the urge to put its foot on the wee yin to shut it up.    Both dogs were friendly... only the wee one, a girl, was noisy.    I had an interesting chat with the man as we walked to the Lathallan road.     He lives in what would have been the Lathallan farm cottage.    I also met a lady with a van, the number of which was P10AWS.    She has 10 dogs.   Lathallan is the place for dogs.

The wind is forecast to veer towards the West by morning;  of this fact I will be glad.    I never feel overly frisky in Easterly winds.    Westerly winds get me loupin’.     Our weather for tomorrow is for it to be ‘more of the same’ .... apart from the change in wind direction.