Sulby Glen

An "interesting" walk - but not very photogenic.

Monday 3rd December, 2012

 

We set off on Monday with a reluctant dog.  Alexander hinted that he would prefer to relax in a warm house instead of supervising our walk.  He sat outside the front door for some time, in a rather pointed way, before grudgingly strolling down to the car.  Apparently he thinks winter walks over water-logged hillsides are an overrated past-time . . . but he did seem to enjoy the outing (apart from the short walk along the tarred road at the end.) 

 

We walked in Sulby Glen again.  This time we climbed up the wooded east side of the glen.  The trees are bare now.

When we had climbed above the trees we could see across the glen to a patch of early sunlight on the plantation.  Most of the glen was still in the shadows.  It takes some time before the sun emerges above the hills at this time of year and some north-facing slopes don't see the sun at all for a few months.

We stopped to take photos of the old farmhouse and buildings at Tholt-y-Will farm, on the lower slopes of Snaefell.

 

The interior of the farmhouse.  This must have been the living room end of the house, with a smaller fireplace above for an upstairs bedroom. 

The view from the front of the house.  The old hawthorns are covered with lichen.

 

 

After exploring the ruins of the old farm, we headed uphill through the forestry land, following sheep paths and picking our way between the trees and around patches of gorse until we reached the Millennium Way and turned north.

 

We followed the Millennium Way towards the Block Eary stream in the valley between Snaefell and Slieau Managh.  Luckily the bridge was still there because it has been washed away in previous floods.  But we could see from the bits of grass and debris between the slats that the water level must have risen above the bridge at times recently.

Then we followed the Millennium Way past the mounds, which are all that remains of temporary medieval huts used during summer when animals grazed up in the hills, and up the other side of the valley.  The sun was shining but there was a cold wind.  I took this photo of the Block Eary Dam with the Tholt-y-Will plantation, on the other side of the glen, in the background.

Usually we follow the Millennium Way up to the little Block Eary plantation and then walk across the hill above the trees.  But Tim wanted to try another route, an alleged "short cut" - so we turned west before the plantation.  It was interesting!  We managed to get through - but we had to find our way around dense patches of gorse, walk along the top of an old sod wall, scramble through a couple of steep-sided overgrown gulleys and across streams.  Alexander decided that one of the streams was too dangerous for a small dog to cross and had to be picked up - but the rest of the party managed to negotiate the hazards.

 

Eventually we got to the track which leads from the glen road up to the dam and the rest of the walk was relatively civilised.  Tim took this photo of the little stream cum waterfall above Irish Cottages.  It formed the border between two old upland farms and you can still see the remains of the old stone walls snaking up the precipitous slope.

 

Instead of joining the road at Irish Cottages, we crossed the river and then walked as far as the old pack horse bridge over the Sulby River before climbing up a sheep path to the road.

Someone was very happy to get back to the car!