Cornaa

Eleventh leg of the Raad ny Foillan - a pretty day

12th October, 2009

 

   Monday was a lovely day . . .  a "pretty" day - as they say in North Carolina - with a very pretty beginning.

 

 

 

    We left a car at the north end of the Mooragh Promenade in Ramsey (instead of the southern end where the new swimming pool has been built) because I was still a bit neurotic about disk parking signs sprouting up unexpectedly, after our experience on Douglas Head.  When we arrived at Cornaa to start our walk the tide was out, the salt marsh had drained, and the view up the valley was transformed from last week.

 

 

 

    We walked up the valley, crossed the footbridge and continued up the path past the swampy area where the marsh marigolds (or Kingcups) flower early in the spring.  We soon reached the Bellite Factory.  In 1890 work was started on this explosives factory and a jetty, but after numerous complaints the enterprise was abandoned two years later, before it was completed.  "A mass of masonry some distance inland, the arrested Bellite Factory, gives a suggestion of old activities decayed. Nature is already softening the harshness of the crude building, and making it part of itself."  This would still be an apt description today - but it is actually taken from a series of "Sketches of Locality" by John Quine, published in the Ramsey Church Magazine in 1896/7. 

 

 

 

 Here is a link if you would like to read the rest of the Sketches  http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/rcm/rcm_skl.htm 

 

    We continued up the path towards Ballaglass and then turned up the hill along a narrow road which first crosses the tramline and then the road to Maughold village before continuing over the top of the hill.  It had been quite chilly in the shade of the trees but the sun was shining, the air was crystal-clear and it was warming up nicely.  There are two sites of historic interest at the top of the hill.  On the east side of the road is the Ballafayle Cairn - the remains of a Neolithic burial site dating from between 1500 and 2000 BC.  The site had been cleared since our last visit, when the cairn was almost obscured by fallen Scots pines, victims of the gales.

 

 

 

   On the other side of the road, (in the background of the last photograph) lies the Quaker Burial Ground . . . with its Scots pines still upright.  In the 17th century, William Callow, one of the early Manx Quakers was persecuted, imprisoned and banished from the Island before being allowed to return four years before his death.   This burial ground was part of the Callow family farm.  William Callow was buried here in 1676 and up to eight other Quakers may also have been buried at this site, but William's wife and children were buried at the church.

 

    While we were taking photographs, a couple walked up the road with their dog.  It wanted to make friends and introduce itself to Alexander but he suspected that it had ulterior motives and jumped over the stone stile to seek sanctuary with the Quakers, and then decided that he would be safer on top of the wall.  He stood up there like the king of the castle, barking very quietly - more of a muffled coughing noise really - as though he wanted to warn the strange dog to keep its distance but didn't want to risk antagonising it too much.

 

 

 

    The next part of the walk was down the road, through Ballajora and past some particularly delicious blackberries growing in the hedges, to Port Mooar.  The views across the fields to Maughold Head and the lighthouse were superb, with Port Mooar in the foreground and the distant blue hills of Cumbria on the horizon.

 

 

 

    As we crossed the shingle beach at Port Mooar, we were joined by an ecstatic young Springer spaniel which came running out of the cottage near the shore.  She wanted to flirt with Alexander who was not amused.  We used to have a Springer, Bailey, living next door to us and he was a notorious wanderer.  We often heard his owners shouting for him in the plantation and he used to follow the horses back to the riding school when they walked down the glen road.  This Springer reminded me of Bailey.  It was the same colouring, and it also looked as though it would be quite happy to tag along with a group of strangers.  It was hardly more than a puppy and I was worried that might not be able to find its way home if it followed us - so the others waited while I went to look for the owner.  I had a bit of trouble attracting his attention because he was using a very loud vacuum cleaner - but eventually he switched it off and heard me knocking on the door.  Then he had quite a lot of difficulty catching his puppy which had decided that it would like nothing better than a long walk with Alexander.

 

    The footpath skirts the north side of Port Mooar and then rounds the headland towards the lighthouse.  We stopped for tea on a flat, grassy area where there is a bench  When I looked at the inscription on the bench, I saw that it had been put there in memory of Sheila Boak who died in 2005.  She was the wife of Alan Boak and they were our neighbours at Ballure Grove, where we rented a house before we bought Covertside.  Alan was a keen hiker, although Sheila had stopped walking when we knew her because of arthritis.  We learned a lot about the Island footpaths from Alan.  The inscription mentioned that Sheila loved to watch the seals from this place.  There were no seals to greet us on Monday but I have seen dozens reclining on the flat rocks around this part of the coast in the past.

 

 

 

    After tea we continued around the coast and then climbed up to the stile which leads to field and then another stile into a lane - past Betsy's field.  This is a field where she chased some sheep when she was still a wild child - only about a year old.  It would have been funny if it hadn't been so worrying.  Betsy was chasing the sheep, who didn't seem to be particularly bothered and were just trotting around the field, and poor Tim was chasing Betsy, while I had Chrissie on the lead in the lane.  When Tim caught Betsy, and brought her back to the gate, all the sheep followed him.   They looked on with great interest and apparent approval, while I attached Betsy's lead and gave her a good talking to and a smack.

 

    The lane winds up through the fields and finally joins up with the road to Maughold Head and the lighthouse.  We followed the road and the track, just stopping to take a photograph of Maughold churchyard and North Barrule.

 

 

 

  Then we turned on to the footpath along the Brooghs to Port e Vullen.  The views from the Brooghs are always lovely, but I had never seen the Cumbrian coast more clearly than on Monday - we could even distinguish the ominous buildings at the nuclear power station at Sellafield.  I was rather miserly with photographs towards the end of the walk because my camera was threatening me with a flashing red battery symbol!  I had been rather over-enthusiastic at the beginning of the walk, and I didn't know how many more shots I could take before the battery packed up completely.

 

    I took one photograph from the Brooghs of Ramsey.  The white rectangular building to the right of the town is the Grand Island Hotel, where our car was parked.  Unfortunately the hotel is no longer grand.  The grounds are overgrown and the windows are boarded up - but there are rumours that it may eventually be converted to apartments.  The spur of land to the left of the photograph is Gob ny rona (Seal Point). 

 

 

 

Gob ny rona means Seal Point.  I was rather confused by the translation because I thought that Gob meant "mouth", which would be a better description of a small bay rather than a headland.  When I looked it up in a Manx dictionary, it became clear.  Gob can also mean "beak"!  I have never seen a seal at Gob ny rona but Dorothy and Trevor, who had been left behind, caught up with us and said that they had been photographing one at the bottom of Stack Mooar (the large rock in the centre of my photograph).

 

    After a short stretch along the road, we turned down to Port e Vullen.  I wanted to take at least one photograph of the unusual rock formations on the beach but, while I was searching for a good angle, I looked round and saw Alexander taking advantage of the pause in the walk to cool off in a small rock pool nearby.  I couldn't resist.  He is my water baby . . . and the most photogenic member of the family.

 

 

 

    After scrambling over some slippery rocks and walking around Gob ny rona to Port Lewaigue, we returned to the road and walked down to Ramsey.  We followed the path to the beach at Ballure and walked along the shore as far as the Queen's Pier.  I was worried that there might be a curfew for dogs on the beach so I took Alexander up onto the promenade while the others continued along the sands.  Alexander was not at all happy and kept going on sit-down strikes.  We came to some steps down to the shore and, as there was no threatening sign and a couple of other dogs were already on the beach, we went down to join the others.  I think the dogs which live in Port Erin and in the Ramsey/Maughold area could be the luckiest in the Island as far as walks are concerned.  We passed at least half a dozen dogs, out and about with their owners, on this stretch of the Raad ny Foillan and the only other place where we came across many dogs was on Bradda Head. 

 

    The last part of our route took us through the remains of the old town near the harbour, along the quay, over the swing bridge, past the new swimming pool and then along the beach to the car.  

 

    The eleventh leg of the Raad ny Foillan wasn't a very long walk - but it took us a long time because of delays caused by photography, dogs, and blackberries.  Next week we tackle the last leg of the walk and it will be difficult to find interesting topics to photograph because it is just beach and clay cliffs all the way.