From Mark Sheldon's photographs, here, it was easy for the family to locate the cairn - yet we had walked close to it many times in the past. It stands, half hidden, on a steep slope, and consists of a semicircle of moss-encrusted rocks within which some of the remains of the aircraft have been placed. As the wreckage was very similar to section of corrugated aluminium we had found on the slope of Tom na Moine (see yesterday's Diary entry), we added that piece to the collection.
The cairn nestles below the gaunt north face of the eastern end of Druim na Gearr Leacainn, a spot devoid of direct sunlight except in mid summer. It seems likely that Flight Lieutenant Woodgate, flying blind on a south or southwesterly course from Kentra, must have narrowly missed Stacan Dubha, only to find himself confronted with this dark cliff. When the 'plane hit it, the wreckage would have fallen back down its face, coming to rest on the heather-clad scree slope.
On the cairn itself, someone has fashioned a cross out of two pieces of copper, perhaps from the hurricane's engine. The cairn looks straight across the twin lochans - in which there is said to be more wreckage - to Beinn ne Seilg, on whose middle slope we found the memorial plaque. It was placed so that both Flight Lieutenant Arthur Woodgate's, and Warrant Officer Stephen's crash site on Coll, are visible from it.
The plaque is screwed to a large boulder of gabbro, from which our grand-daughters had fine views down into Kilchoan village and towards Ben Hiant. And perhaps they came away with a better understanding of the terrible toll of war, and of a tragedy which took the lives of two brave young airmen.
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