North Barrule

A clean boot walk . . . all the mud was frozen!

Monday 10th December 2012

 

    It was a frosty morning, only a couple of degrees above zero when we left home.  Gloves were essential and I decided to wear my trapper hat.  The forecast had been for light winds and a sunny day - so we planned another assault on the North Barrule ridge. 

 

    When we reached the parking place by the marshals' hut on the east side of Snaefell, the sun was shining but the temperature reading on the car was down to zero.  This shelter for the TT marshals is called Black Hut even though it is not black.  In the past there was a wooden hut here which had been painted with creosote.  The black hut was demolished years ago but the name remains. 

 

    We crossed the road, left the sunshine, and climbed up the even colder, shady side Clagh Ouyr.  The ground was frozen hard and there was thick ice on the puddles so we spent most of the time looking at the ground trying to find the safest places to walk.  My metal walking "stick" wasn't as much help as usual on the slippery surface because the spike couldn't stick into the frozen ground. 

 

    We stopped occasionally for a short rest, or to take photos, or to admire the view.  Tim took this photo of Dorothy with sunny Snaefell in the background . . .

. . . and the next one of the steep climb up Clagh Ouyr.

 

And I took this one near the top of the hill as we emerged from the shadow of the hill into the bright sunshine.

 

Danny didn't seem to mind the cold.  He enjoyed the walk - as usual - and was very interested in this small cairn.  There are a number of cairns on the tops of the little hills along the ridge.  I think they may mark the boundary between Lezayre and Maughold parishes.

Tim said I should call Danny and get him to walk across this frozen dub - but he is a wise old dog and must have suspected our motives because he kept well away from the ice.  He had been happy to walk along the icy boardwalk across the bog but that was reasonably safe because the icy wood was covered with wire mesh.  The older bit of boardwalk without wire was covered in ice and was absolutely lethal so we had to walk over the semi-frozen bog until we reached the newer section.

I fell behind the others after stopping to take photos but Danny waited for me on this icy stile.  He was looking through the bars when I first saw him but he moved before I got my camera ready.  I asked him to do it again but he refused.

The sun was shining everywhere except on the western slopes of the hills . . .  and Glen Auldyn, which was still in the shadow of North Barrule.  In midwinter, our house doesn't see the sun until about eleven o'clock and even then the sun just seems to bob along the horizon just above the hills for a couple of hours before disappearing behind Skyhill.  The hills which block the sun do have their uses though because we are protected from the wind.  Taking wind-chill into consideration, we are probably no colder than the sunny areas on the northern plain - we may even be warmer on really windy days.

We stopped for coffee at the top of the main North Barrule peak and Tim took the obligatory photo of Ramsey.

 

Then we all managed to survive the return journey.  I suggested to Dorothy that in future we could leave one car at Mountain Box and avoid the long slog up Clagh Ouyr towards the end of the walk . . . but she said that would be cheating!