Harlaw revisited

Today half a dozen brave (or foolhardy) dykers went back to Harlaw, to finish off the repairs we started last month, the park rangers having provided us with more stone to complete the job. Sadly, it wasn't nearly as nice a day as last time, with low cloud threatening to turn into a full-blown downpour at any moment.

It looked like the low bit in the wall at the first site had tempted some people to climb over, as the built up level seemed lower than when we'd left it.

It didn't look, to begin with, like more stone had been provided at this bit, so we went along to the other gap. Here there was some stone, but as there wasn't really enough space for all six of us to work here Dave and I headed back to the first gap to see if we could patch it up where it had been knocked down, leaving Stevie, Karl, Richard and Alan to work on the bigger gap.

When we had a closer look at the first gap we realised that the rangers actually had left more stone there - it was just hidden in the grass, and between that and a big lump we discovered on our way along from the stile to the gap we found we had just enough to complete the wall, albeit not quite up to the full level height of the rest of it.

We even had a couple of copes left over so we decided to take these along to the second site to see if they could be used there. Dave was sure I could throw one over the waterlogged ditch between the wall and the path - and he was right, though unfortunately I couldn't throw it far enough that it didn't just roll back down into the water. Dave gallantly fished it out while I lugged the other one along the path, and then we both headed along to see if A) they would like any help finishing the wall and B) any of them felt it was lunchtime yet.

The answers to both of these questions being yes, we adjourned to the wood on the other side of the path, where there was some slight shelter from the rain and a fallen tree to sit on.

After lunch we fairly quickly used up the small amount of remaining stone, and then coped the length of completed wall. However, we were about one barrow-load short of being able to get the whole gap closed, so we had to head off, leaving the final bit for another day.