trip-to-the-burn

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trip-to-the-burn

Trip to The Burn

On 27th April, a convoy of vehicles moved away from Cargilfield to return to The Burn for our 5th visit, something to which we very much look forward.  Mr Laver and Mr Ronan were leading the Geography and Science fieldtrips for Form 7; Mrs Gillespie and Mr Sommerville were leading the poetry, photography and art experience for some of Form 8.  The Headmaster was picking up some of the baggage and it was good to have Zoe with us as well.  We departed knowing that the weather forecast was pretty grim for the Angus hills and Tuesday afternoon – after we had a hearty lunch – was very overcast, but remarkably warm.  The North Esk, was not quite as high as last September, but was certainly showing off its real power as it comes through the very steep gorge, just by The Burn House.  Mr Laver pointed out a great deal of geology: this is a remarkable area and The Burn House is used by many geologists from the various Universities up in Scotland.  The Scientists were looking for different kinds of bugs and insects and all kinds of creepy-crawlies under the watchful eye of Mr Ronan and they also planted quite a few bug traps, which we would then look at on the Thursday.  The Burn, as ever, offers football, tennis, croquet, putting and 200 acres of real beauty and it does not take much for the children to find things to do when they finish their work.

Wednesday saw the Geographers and Scientists going to St Cyrus beach – one of the most sensational areas of scientific interest that we have in Scotland – and the photographers and poets went to Dunottar Castle just south of Stonehaven.  The clouds lingered a bit in the north but, on the beach, we managed to get quite a bit of sunshine and a balmy westerly wind.  Boys and girls were very good on the beach when it came to research and recording; both Mr Laver and Mr Ronan commented on the excellence of the day and once they had finished with beach profiles and the flora and snails of the beach, the party went over to Montrose to look at sea defences of an area which is severely eroded.  The poets had the most wonderful experience up at the castle, a place of some beauty and passion, and they also popped into Catterline Village on the way down back to Montrose.

 Breakfast, lunch and supper, as always were grand at The Burn and boys and girls had a tremendous Wednesday night meal, followed once again by tuck shop.

Thursday saw a most beautiful day at The Burn: warm and sunny, and everybody concentrated on their work at The Burn House.  Form 7 Scientists and Geographers had a quiz just before lunch and they really showed how much they had learnt by recording a 90% success mark on questions offered.  It was a competition and Harry Moir’s team won on the day by three points and I mention Harry because he was probably the best of the whole lot.  In the afternoon, after further work on The Burn grounds by the poets and photographers, we had a major challenge: the Headmaster had taken 54 photographs at the end of the holidays of all aspects of The Burn, mainly from silly angles and quite hard to find, and four different teams, each under the leadership of a teacher went about their task to find and record where these interesting delights were hiding.  Some ran, some walked, some were intelligent, some wandered around a little bemused, but it was a tremendous way to finish our trip, simply looking at the wonderful detail of The Burn House and the acres around it.

Thank you very much to the staff and to the children: this was a very well-behaved party, and David Wood and his team at The Burn deserve our thanks as well and they also commented on what a lovely bunch of individuals they had entertained.

Posted on Monday, May 3rd, 2010.


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