The Cronk

The second leg of the Raad ny Foillan - a cheats version

 29th June, 2009

 

We were a bit apprehensive about walking on Monday because of our "heat wave" - maximum temperatures of 24 degrees most days.  I know 24 won't impress you but it is a heat wave for us!  We left all the dogs at home again.  Partly because of the reasons given last week and partly because of the lack of shade on most of the walk - little black dogs heat up fast in the hot sun.  But it actually turned out to be quite a pleasant morning, slightly hazy and a bit of cloud cover, with cool breezes on the beach. 

 

I was glad that I captured an image of the blue and distant Peel hills at the end of the last walk because they were barely visible when we set out on the second leg.  The first part of the walk was along the beach from the Cronk to Glen Trunk.  There wasn't much to photograph except a lot of sand and the eroding clay cliffs which are being worn away from above by run off from rain on the fields, and from below by the waves when onshore gales and high tides coincide.  Add in wind erosion and, over the years, whole fields as well as buildings have been lost to the sea in the north of the Island.

 

The second photograph shows the new bridge over the stream at Glen Trunk just a few yards from the beach.  When we moved to the Island, there was a charmingly eccentric bridge at Glen Trunk.  It consisted of the chassis of an old truck and a few planks.  This was replaced by a boring wooden bridge which was washed away during floods last year.  The third bridge, with its blue "Raad ny Foillan" sign, is much higher above the water so it may survive a bit longer. 

 

I could call the last photo "A Raad not taken" because Trevor decided that there was no point in following the "classic route" which leaves the beach and follows the footpath over the bridge to Bishopscourt and then goes along the old railway line to Glen Wyllin, where we should have returned to the beach until we reached Glen Mooar.  Trevor said it was supposed to be the coastal footpath - so we should stick to the coast and follow the shorter route along the beach.  As Trevor is the only member of the group who hasn't done the whole walk before, and we are doing it mainly for his benefit, it seemed right that he should decide.  And it was tempting to cheat a bit and take a short cut along the shore because the tide was a long way out and there was flat, hard sand to walk on.  The haze was lifting and Peel hill was visible again but it still looked rather a long way ahead.

 

   We stopped for a break at a picnic table at Glen Mooar and then walked up to the old railway line.  The path climbs up the steep embankment near the old sandstone pillars which carried the railway bridge high above the glen.  The bridge is long gone but the pillars remain as a monument to the good old days.  It was getting hotter and hotter as we walked along the old line and at first there wasn't much to photograph except plastic covered hay bales and fields of bored sheep.  There were quite a few uncooperative butterflies, which wouldn't settle long enough for a photograph, a couple of painted ladies and one or two unidentified whites, but mainly a lot of meadow browns, and some common blues and small heaths.  The larvae of the last three all feed on grasses and there was plenty of grass around - but very few wild flowers.  We passed a patch of spearwort (type of buttercup) and some wild forget-me-not growing in a damp ditch but they weren't very photogenic.   Then we reached the rather boggy section of the track near Bobby's farm, where we had to pick our way around or through patches of semi-liquid mud, and the vegetation changed completely.  First there were some colourful patches of Rosebay Willowherb and a lot of white hogweed by the rather overgrown path . . . 

 

 

 

. . . and then we came across a whole lot of beautiful orchids.  I thought at first that they must be marsh orchids but, after checking photographs on the internet, I think it is more likely that they are common spotted orchids.  It isn't easy to identify them positively because they are quite variable and frequently hybridise.

 

 

 

    The last photo was taken as we approached the end of the walk and features some calves.  They seem to be oblivious of the beautiful view of Peel Castle from their field.  (It also shows the first part of next week's route, which follows the top of the cliffs north of Peel and then goes through the town and over Peel Hill.)

 

 

 

    Eventually we reached the car which we had left at St Germain's Halt, where the old railway line crossed the coast road.  There must have been a level crossing there when the trains were running but the name is still used by a rather interesting private home built of red Peel sandstone.   Originally it was the old station building - but it has been extended and modernised.  Trevor lives in Peel and knows the surrounding area very well.  He suggested parking there.  It is a better place to leave a car than the sand quarry where we had planned to stop and which is at least half a mile further on.  So we managed a second "cheat" - but that half mile will be tacked onto the beginning of the third leg.   Next week - St Germain's Halt to Dalby.