the queue for the barbers

Today we enjoyed our warmest weather yet. We have walked about 8 miles and are shattered but happy. In the morning we took more advice from our landlady and walked through a glen and across Lorsgill to a beach. Today it wasn't a private beach a German couple and a Dutch couple walked through along a coastal walk. On the beach our mission was to find driftwood for our landlady to use in her craft work. We  collected a bag full before the peace was broken by a herd of cows wandering onto the beach to get out of the way of a flock of sheep heading over the hill. Time for our retreat ! We walked back to the Gill we had crossed on the way but finding a crossing route the other way was proving a problem, then the sheep arrived and we moved aside. Two shepherds on quad bikes controlled three sheepdogs to drive hundreds of sheep into a secure field ready for shearing.

When the long line had finally run through the water the quad bike followed and I cheekily asked for a lift through the water. The farmers chatted once the sheep were all through the gate. They had been gathering the sheep for over 4 hours and had driven them 4 miles to this point. They also explained the history of the remains of the village in the area. It had been part of the 18th and 19th century clearance of the crofters by landowners that wanted more land to rear sheep for the increasing price of wool. This farmer had been part of a community buyout and his house controlled 8000 acres.

The extra photos show Coral Beach we visited later in the afternoon when the clouds had started to gather and our cottage for the week (its the far right on the wide angle shot next to the landlady's house)