"The last walk of
2011"
Tuesday, 24th April,
2012.
Tuesday's walk was unusual for at least
four reasons:
1. It was dogless because we were planning to
walk along a section of the coastal footpath where dogs are not
permitted.
2. It was supposed to be the last walk of
2011 and had been postponed for a variety of reasons . . . first we didn't walk
for a few weeks before Christmas because Tim wasn't well, then Alice was ill
and couldn't be left at home for a whole morning and finally we had to wait
for guaranteed good weather.
3. It was in the extreme south of the Island, an
hour's drive from home and further than we usually venture, partly because we
don't like to leave the dogs shut in the house for too long, and partly because
of the price of petrol - which recently reached £1-50 per litre.
4. It ended with a celebration picnic because it
marked the end of our 2011 project to climb all the hills on the Island during
the year. We nearly succeeded as there was only one hill - Spanish Head - left
to be ticked off our list this year.
It was a sunny morning but cool because the
breeze was from the north west. We started from the car park at the side of the
road above Cregneash Village. Cregneash is a combination of a few private
houses mixed in with buildings and a farm belonging to Manx National Heritage.
The farm is maintained using nineteenth century farming methods and the village
is referred to as a living museum.
Cregneash
As we were going to end the walk through
Cregneash, we started off down the narrow tarred road from the top of Mull Hill
to Port Erin. This road passes Ballaman - the house which was built by Nigel
Mansell overlooking Port Erin bay. It now owned by someone with more money
than artistic discrimination - judging by the rather tasteless statues of horses
at the entrance and the new, over-elaborate gate posts.
Approaching Port Erin
While our poor dogs were waiting patiently
(?) at home a couple of Labradors were enjoying a run on Port Erin beach at low
tide. The structure on the hill top is the Milner Tower on Bradda Head.
"This was built in 1871 as a view tower in memory of William Milner of the
then-famous Milner's Safe Co. Ltd., maker of fire-resistant safes and a local
philanthropist. His tower is built in the shape of a key and lock."
We walked around the south side of the bay
until we reached the footpath which starts behind the old marine biological
building. We had to pass a nesting site favoured by herring gulls which have
been known to attack walkers in the breeding season. A number of gulls appeared
to be booking their nesting sites but there were no signs of any eggs yet and
the birds ignored us.
We climbed the long slope back up Mull Hill
following the footpath along the cliffs which leads to the Sound.
First view of the Calf from the coastal
path
Glorious scenery, but not much history along
this stretch of the path - except this curious little structure that looks like
a concrete dog kennel in the middle of a field. It is said to contain the
footprints of St Patrick. A rather shaky video has been posted on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owThyziMVN0 with the following explanation "The Victorian's built a stone housing over the footprints of Saint
Patrick and you had to pay a penny to open the shutters to look through the
eyeholes to see them." We did climb over the fence years ago to look at the
"footprints" but gave it a miss this morning because the old fence has been
replaced with a new one - with two strands of barbed wire at the top. (PS Don't
bother with the sound on the video - the quality is very poor as it was
obviously filmed on a very windy day!)
Approaching a rather rough part of the path that
always makes me think of that old tongue twister "Round the rugged rocks the
ragged rascal ran". Not a good place to run as it is necessary at times to pick
one's way carefully amongst the rocks on the narrow path. The Sound Cafe, where
workmen were busy improving the car park, is round the next corner.
After passing the cafe we climbed Burroo Ned,
site of an ancient promontory fort, before dropping down to the little
footbridge over a stream before starting the steep climb up Spanish
Head.
Looking back towards the Sound from Burroo
Ned.
Looking ahead towards Spanish Head - 350 feet
above the sea - from Burroo Ned.
About half way up the steepest part of the
Spanish Head climb, we were passed by a group of seven jovial Manx firemen,
resplendent in scarlet polar fleece jackets, on their way down the hill. I
remarked to Tim that they seemed to be enjoying their hike and he said that they
wouldn't look so cheerful if they were going up the hill!
The firemen on Burroo Ned - photographed as we
approached the top of Spanish Head.
When we finally reached our target - the
cairn on the top of Spanish Head - we stopped to take photos. While we were
enjoying our moment of glory, we were passed by three hikers, an elderly couple
(even older than us?) with a younger companion who appeared to struggling to
keep up with them. Trevor remarked "The footpaths are getting quite
crowded!"
Then we headed back to the car park along a
path which runs through the fields to Cregneash. On the way we passed a couple
of friendly farm horses and stopped so that Dorothy could give one a cuddle. I
tried to get a photo of the encounter but the horse refused
to cooperate.
Then we wasted some more time trying to get a
good photo of a couple of Loaghtan lambs with their mum.
And finally we shared a picnic and a bottle
of bubbly on the top of Mull Hill - and by some miracle the showers which had
been predicted for the middle of the day all avoided us.
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