On Wednesday 22nd November, 17 Year 13 Geography students, Mrs. Armstrong and Mr. Mason travelled by minibus and school Ranger to Magilligan Field Centre for a two night, three day residential field trip. Arriving a little late due to a prolonged coffee stop at the Asda in Strabane, we had a quick bite of lunch and headed out on to the Umbra sand dunes to investigate plant succession in a psammosere. The weather held out, so we didn’t really need to be dressed head to toe in wet weather gear, but the same was not the case on Thursday as we set off for a full day in the Curly Burn River, up to our thighs in river water whilst the heavens opened and soaked us from above. A long morning left some struggling with hunger, but a successful day in the river returned a near perfect set of results for out AS Paper 3 Examination.
The teachers pushed us to our saturation limit in the evening classroom work, so one way or another we were inundated in water, rain and work that day. A range of activities such as pool, table tennis, watching “I’m a celebrity” and frightening the folks in the recreation room by jumping around outside the windows in the dark kept us out of trouble, unless you count listening to Mr. Mason as a hazardous pursuit.
After breakfast on Friday we changed the bedding, packed our stuff and headed off to Derry/Londonderry to visit the Ebrington development on the site of the old Army Barracks. Here we were treated to a very informative, sunny if a little chilly tour of the site by Kevin Carlin. This gave some of us our first chance to cross the Foyle over the Peace Bridge talking lunch in the city before returning home for a well-deserved weekend break.
Thanks to all the staff at Magilligan Field Centre, Michael Cross, Natalie McLucas and Colin for another very warm welcome and invaluable field work experience. Thanks also to Mr. Martin for delivering and retrieving us in the school minibus.
