Patrick

Two hills in Patrick

Monday 31st January, 2011

According to Brown’s Isle of Man Directory, 1894, Patrick Parish is “ . . . a wild mountainous region including the northern slopes of Barrule and Slieauwhallin, and, to the west, the Dalby Mountains, with the Peel hills to the north.  The district is barren, and only a small part of its area is capable of cultivation. The population is partly agricultural, fishing, and mining, and is sparsely distributed over the parish.  Glenmaye is the principal village, it is much frequented by tourists on account of its beautiful scenery and waterfall.”

We started from Fenella Beach, named after Walter Scott’s character in Peveril of the  Peak, which was partly set around Peel Castle, and climbed up the slope from the castle on St Patrick’s Isle towards the twin peaks of Peel hill and Corrin’s hill.

The city of Peel lay below on the northern bank of the Neb.

Instead of continuing along the cliffs to the south, we planned to save the delights of Glen Maye and its beautiful scenery for another walk and headed down the east side of Peel Hill towards the area known as the Raggatt.  We could see the outline of Slieau Whallian – our next goal – in the distance.

There was quite a lot of road walking before we reached the Garey and then climbed to the top of Slieau Whallian, where we stopped to take photos of the overcast view back towards Peel.

Then we headed down the steep paths though the plantation, just catching a brief view of the ceremonial Tynwald Hill in St John’s, through the conifers.  Every summer there is a gathering there when the laws are read out to the assembled crowd on the 5^th of July – our national day.

Then we crossed the Patrick Road, walked through a few fields until we reached the old Douglas to Peel railway line and made our way back to the cars.

I stopped to take a photo of the marina and asked Tim to walk ahead with Alexander.  But Alexander, being a gentleman, decided to wait for me and applied the brakes!

List of hills climbed in January.

 03/01  North Barrule                     1860 ft                      565m

             Clagh Ouyr                           1801 ft                      551m

17/01 Beinn-y-Phott                      1790 ft                      544m

             Mullagh Ouyr                      1612 ft                      491m

             Carraghan                            1640 ft                      500m

24/01 Beary                                     1020 ft                      311m            

31/01 Slieau Whallian                   1094 ft                      333m

             Peel/Corrins Hill                   502 ft                      153m