Peel

The "new and improved" third leg of the Raad ny Foillan (featuring the basking sharks)

 

8th July, 2009

 

We started off from St Germain's Halt, and walked along the main coast road towards Peel, until we reached the footpath which follows the top of the cliffs north of the town before descending to the promenade.  Before we had even reached the gate to the footpath, we met a dog-walker coming up the road who told us to look out for basking sharks - and as soon as we got a good view down into the sea we saw one.  We kept sighting them as we walked towards Peel but weren't sure whether we were seeing a series of basking sharks or the same one which just happened to be moving south with us.  I took a number of photographs but they weren't very clear - just a lot of water and an indistinct fin or two!  South of Peel Hill we saw one closer to the shore and I got a better photograph.  At least it is possible to make out the shape of the shark through the water.

 

The first photograph of the day shows one of the stacks below the cliffs and illustrates the truth of the old saying "Birds of a feather flock together".  All the cormorants are perched on the lower section and the gulls are up at the top.  I think this might be the largest of the red sandstone stacks north of Peel, which is marked on the map as The Stack.  The gulls nest on the stacks and it can be quite scary walking along the path in spring because they tend to dive down and attack passers-by who get too close to their chicks.

  

 

 

This is the very civilized footpath that we walked along - smooth and with neatly strimmed edges.  The familiar outline of Peel Hill and St Patrick's Isle are in the background.  There was a gusty wind blowing and it was difficult to hold the camera steady.  The wind also accounts for the lack of flower photographs.  I was disappointed not to get a shot of the first harebells of the summer but they were being tossed about in the wind and all I could have hoped for was a blue blur.

 

 

 

Now an explanation of the "new and improved" comment in the title.  This is a view of Peel harbour and the new marina taken from the pedestrian swing bridge, across the mouth of the Neb.  The bridge joins the southern end of the promenade to the road leading round the harbour to Fenella Beach and the castle.  The classic route for the Raad ny Foillan follows the road on north side of the harbour as far as the kipper factory and then crosses over the road bridge onto a steep footpath leading up to the saddle between Peel Hill and Corrin's Hill.  We decided to cross the new pedestrian bridge and take a less steep path which linked up with the other route near the top of the hill.  We rationalised that the coastal footpath would have followed our improved route if the pedestrian bridge had existed when the Raad ny Foillan was originally planned.

 

 

 

I missed another action shot on this walk.  Leo noticed something moving in the undergrowth at the side of the path over the hill.  His hunting instinct proved more powerful than his natural caution and he jumped into the middle of a small gorse bush.  Then he decided that it would be less painful to stay there rather than try to extricate himself - so Tim had to step in and rescue him.

 

We continued along the path which crosses the south-west side of Peel Hill.  There is a steep drop down to the sea and my mind boggled when Trevor said that there used to be a railway line along this path.  It must have been a long time ago because he said it was used to transport stone from a quarry to build the Peel breakwater and that the trucks were pulled by horses!  It was a little further along this path that I took the photograph of the basking shark.

 

 

 

    The last photograph shows the "path" between Peel Hill and Glen Maye.  No strimmers have been here this year - and the path has practically disappeared from sight beneath the long grass.  We met two hikers heading towards Peel from Glen Maye and they said that they had seen three or four basking sharks in the sea off Glen Maye.  I managed to pick out a couple but they were further offshore so I didn't take any more photographs.

 

 

 

    Instead of taking the path which goes as far as the old water wheel casing, and then walking down the track to the shore, we took a short cut down a steep path to the beach at the mouth of the river at Glen Maye, crossed the bridge and climbed up the other side of the glen to some fields below the Dalby Road.  The last bit of footpath before we reached "civilization" was so overgrown that the weeds were head height and Leo decided that it would be easier to walk behind me than to go in front and push his way through.  Luckily it was only a short way until we reached the houses and then we walked along the road as far as the car. 

 

The only thing of interest along the last stretch was spotting a small tortoiseshell butterfly at the side of the road.  They used to be quite common and we had them over-wintering under our house when we first moved to the glen but it is quite a rare occurrence to see one now.  It is odd how the populations of the various butterflies fluctuate over the years  I used to get excited if I saw a comma or a peacock but we see them every summer now.  Dorothy was complaining last week that she hasn't had any butterflies on her buddleia this year but we think it may be due to the buddleia flowering earlier than usual after our "heat-wave".