Laxey Glen

Mud!

Tuesday 1st November 2011

    Just when I thought it would never stop raining - it did!  We walked this morning in warm sunshine.  Perhaps "walked" isn't the right word.  For at least half the walk we seemed to be sliding or wading through mud.  But, at least, the weather was lovely!

    We started up some steep stone steps set into a wall near the Laxey Flour Mills.  About half way up the path we came across a rather mysterious old gate.  The rusting sign says Axnfell which is the name of the nearby plantation.  This must have been the entrance to an old house which was here before the plantation existed.

   We hadn't walked up these paths for many years and it was a pleasant surprise further up the path to come across a pretty pond in an area which had previously been overgrown with gorse.  Broad-leaved trees have also been planted in the area and they should grow in to a lovely little wood in a few years.

    And now the serious mud!  I asked Tim to walk ahead with Danny and Alice so that I could record the state of the path . . . 

. . .  and then around the next corner we came across this old car.   It looked as though it had got stuck in the mud about fifty years ago and had never managed to escape! 

    The next trial was a very muddy field which had been churned up by cattle.  There were two inquisitive cows near the gate but luckily they moved away as we approached.  Then we walked though Shonest,  a horse farm.

    And up to Conrhenny plantation - and yet more mud along the mountain bike tracks.  It was a relief to get out onto the road back to Axnfell Plantation.    There is a steep path through the Axnfell trees leading down to the river. 

The path along the river provided more mud - but we were able to walk along an old water channel part of the way .  It must date back to the time that water power was used to drive the flour mill further downstream.

And eventually we got back to "civilisation" and the old Victorian pleasure gardens. 

Some of the original trees and shrubs remain but not much else has survived.  Is hard to imagine what the gardens must have looked like in the past but I found the following etching at this website http://www.bbc.co.uk/isleofman/content/articles/2008/04/22/laxey_glen_gardens_feature.shtml