Skyhill

A walk for Alexander.

Tuesday, 18 December, 2012

 

    On Monday we decided not to walk this week.  Dorothy has a chesty cold and I am in a state of pre-Christmas panic.  However . . . my decision to stay at home and get ready for Christmas was overruled by Tim on Tuesday morning.  He said that Alexander needed a walk.  It transpired later that Tim had forgotten that Timothy was arriving this Friday  He thought there was another week before it all kicked off!  Only a man could be so blissfully unaware of Christmas looming.

 

    I felt bad about not trying to contact Trevor but it was rather late when we decided to go out and we were only planning a short walk - through Skyhill plantation and then up the Millennium Way and back down into the glen.  

 

    I stopped at the edge of the plantation to take some photos of Ramsey, framed by a couple of birches.

 

And then stopped for a rest up on the Millennium way near Skyhill Farm to photograph my favourite Scots pines and got a bit carried away by the sky and the clouds.

I was getting ready to photograph the clouds reflected in this puddle when some other reflections suddenly arrived.

 

There was hardly any wind so I started thinking about reflections on the dubs and persuaded Tim that we should take a detour along the wall towards the Neary and then follow the sheep path to the dubs.  I thought it would be easier for Alexander than the direct route from the Millennium Way to the dubs, through thick heather.  Well, Alexander was happy but Tim wasn't too thrilled by the condition of the path from the Neary.  We couldn't decide whether it was a path or a shallow stream or a long, thin puddle.  We ended up walking through the heather at the side of the "path".  It was quite heavy going.

My socks were damp from the wet heather before we reached the dubs and they got even wetter when I got rather too enthusiastic about finding the best spots to take photos and tried to pick my way through the boggy area around the dubs.  Tim stayed at a safe distance and took this photo of me (which, for some obscure reason changed colour when it was transferred to the blog.  Perhaps Picasa thought the original was too dark and gloomy).

 

I was still a bit obsessed by clouds and reflections  First I got this shot of Snaefell . . .

 

. . . and then, while I was  trying to balance on top of a clump of heather to take this shot of cloud reflections, my foot slipped and I felt an ominous trickle of cold water running down into my boot. 

After leaving the dubs we ran out of sheep paths and Tim decided to carry Alexander.

    We passed quite close to the ponies that we saw from the North Barrule ridge last week.  They appeared to think that we might be bringing them food.  We didn't want to raise their hopes and then disappoint them so we turned off down the hill before we reached them.  Alexander was very relieved.  I wonder whether they are the same ponies that used to graze in the Corrany Valley.

 

Then we squelched our way home.  There wasn't much else of interest apart from a new "bridge" across the stream near the pool at the old quarry.  Someone has put a couple of sleepers across the stream.  We didn't go up to the pool but I crossed the "bridge" to take this photo.  The sleepers felt quite secure and the surface of the wood wasn't slippery (yet) but there is nothing to anchor them in place apart from their weight.  I wonder whether they will survive if the stream floods.

Happy Christmas and all that!