Penny Pot

Back to the hills

Monday 17^th January, 2011

We started our walk from the Bungalow, a little station at the junction of the Mountain Road and the electric tramline to the summit of Snaefell.  We had intended climbing Snaefell but it was covered in dense mist so we headed south to climb two lower hills, hoping the sun would burn off the mist as it rose. 

We crossed the road and walked along the lower slope of Mullagh Ouyr before recrossing the road to climb Beinn y Phott.

The morning rush hour was ending but there were still a few cars driving over the mountain - using their headlights because of the dim light and fog.  Warning:  Google+ does not approve of my dark and moody photographs and has tried to cheer them up.  I shall have to change the setting to prevent the “improvements”.  If Wuthering Heights got the Google+ treatment, it might have ended with everyone living happily ever after!

  

At first we got misty glimpses of the East Baldwin valley below.

But soon we could only see the path ahead leading to the summit.

The welcome sight of a pile of stones marking the top of the Penny Pot.  But now we had to find the path leading down towards an invisible Carraghan, the next hill on the list.  These paths are easy enough to find when you and can see the direction you need to take . . . but not so easy on a foggy day.

We didn’t get lost and followed the path up Carraghan without difficulty.  It is a long hill with two summits.  We weren’t sure whether this pile of stones marked the highest point so we followed the path to the end of the ridge and then climbed down through the heather and the mist towards the Millennium Way.

As we descended the fog thinned and we got our first hazy glimpse of Injebreck Reservoir in the West Baldwin valley.

Further down a glorious view emerged.

This photo shows the route of the Millennium Way along the top of the ridge between the West Baldwin valley and the East Baldwin Valley on the left.  St Luke’s church is in the far distance, beyond the small plantation.

We intended returning to the cars via the Millennium Way and the Brandywell Road but, while we were going through a gate, a shepherd on a scrambler bike stopped to chat and asked about our hike.  He suggested going back via the footpath to Windy Corner.  We explained that we didn’t want to walk all the way down the track, past St Luke’s, to get to the road which would take us to the footpath.  He replied that we could just take a direct route down through the fields.  We didn’t know whether he had the authority to give us permission to cross the farmland but he was so keen to be helpful that we didn’t like to turn down his offer.  Also we can’t resist the opportunity to experience any new route.  So we headed down through the fields towards the river at the bottom of the valley – hoping to find some way of crossing it without getting too wet.

I need not have worried because we managed to climb over a fence onto the track to the old farm, where the Windy Corner footpath starts, and crossed the footbridge at the ford.  The snag with walking down into the valley was that we had to climb up the other side.

And, being gluttons for punishment we decided to return to the Bungalow over the top of Mullagh Ouyr so that we could bag a third hill during the walk.

Before we descended to the car, I looked across and saw that the last of the fog/cloud had lifted and Beinn y Phott (with the ridge of Carraghan behind on the left)  were bathed in sunshine.

PS  We walked up in Brookdale Plantation on Saturday afternoon, and I paused to take a photo of the sea mist which was covering the northern plain and creeping up the glen below.   It suddenly struck me that the clouds had been turned upside down since Monday.  On Monday we walked though the clouds up on the top of the hills but today the tops of the hills were in brilliant sunshine and the "clouds" were all down at sea level.  Weird.