Bradda

A three hill walk.

Monday 28th March 2011

We started off from the Sloc – the dip between Cronk ny Arrey Laa and Lhiattee ny Biennee on the south west coast of the Island.

I stopped on the steep climb up Lhiattee ny Biennee to take a photo of the coast – looking north towards Niarbyl (the tail of rocks).

Then I turned slightly inland to photograph the road from the Sloc, climbing up and around Cronk ny Arrey Laa.  This is one of the roads on the Island that occasionally has to be closed when there is a heavy fall of snow.  The slightly flat top of the small hill at the bottom of the slope is said to the site of a Pictish village.

The path at the top of Lhiattee ny Beinnee continues along the long ridge before descending the Carnanes (at the southern end of the ridge) to Fleshwick.

The next photo was taken as we walked down from the Carnanes and shows the view across the valley towards Bradda Hill.  There is still evidence of the great fire of October 2003 which burned for four days.  It destroyed most of the vegetation on the hill and even burned down into the peat.  The areas which escaped the fire can be picked out.  They show up as rusty patches of dead bracken which will turn green in a few weeks as the new fronds emerge and unfurl.

This is Fleshwick Bay – where we saw our first basking sharks many years ago.

We didn't climb up Bradda Hill from the Fleshwick side.  For a change, we took the footpath around the east side of the hill below the little plantation and then went up the road to the Tower and climbed Bradda Hill from the south side. 

This is the view looking back towards Bradda Head and the Milner Tower with the Calf of Man beyond - from the path above the sheer drop down to the sea below Bradda Hill.

Then we reached the top of our second peak.  The pile of stones marking the summit of Bradda Hill.

Before descending the steep path to Fleshwick, I took this photo of Trevor near a wall where we often stop for a coffee break. The grass and heather are flourishing here now but there are still a few patches of moss and stonecrop which were the first to re-colonise the bare earth after the fire.

 A little further down the hill the grass and heather were growing even more vigorously.

This photo taken in late summer 2009 (nearly two years ago) from almost the same place shows how quickly the vegetation is regenerating.

Tim, Trevor and Danny on the path down to Fleshwick.

Walk was really arduous – a three hill walk.  It took four and a half hours.  I know I am very lucky to be healthy enough to go on these hikes but when I was struggling up the final steep climb from Fleshwick Bay to the Carnanes I didn't actually feel very lucky!  I couldn't complain though, because I planned the route.  We keep reassuring ourselves that the exercise is good for us but I sometimes wonder whether there is an element of masochism involved.  Anyway the views are always lovely.  

From the top of the Carnanes we could look across the whole of the south coast of the Island.