Walking on the Isle of Man. Terry Marsh

Walk 9 A taste of the Millennium Way

       Walk 10 Maughold Brooghs and Port Mooar

       Walk 11 Cornaa and Ballaglass Glen

       Walk 12 Dhoon Glen

       Walk 13 Clagh Ouyr and North Barrule

       Walk 14 Snaefell from the Bungalow

       Walk 15 Laxey, Agneash and King Orry’s Grave

       Walk 16 The Snaefell Mines

       Walk 17 Groudle Glen and Baldrine

       Walk 18 Crosby, Baldwin and Union Mills

       Walk 19 Slieau Ruy and Greeba Mountain

       The South

       Walk 20 Peel Hill and Corrins Hill

       Walk 21 St John’s, Patrick and the Heritage Trail

       Walk 22 Glen Maye, the coast path and Patrick

       Walk 23 Glen Maye, Niarbyl Bay and Dalby Mountain

       Walk 24 Glen Maye to Glen Rushen

       Walk 25 Glen Maye, Glen Rushen and the Postman’s Path

       Walk 26 Cronk ny Arrey Laa

       Walk 27 South Barrule Summit

       Walk 28 South Barrule Forest Walk and Corlea Plantation

       Walk 29 Lhiattee ny Beinnee and Fleshwick Bay

       Walk 30 Bradda Head and Bradda Hill

       Walk 31 Port Erin to Peel

       Walk 32 Mull Hill, Spanish Head and The Chasms

       Walk 33 Mull Hill and Cregneash

       Walk 34 Port St Mary, The Sound and Port Erin

       Walk 35 Colby Glen, Ballakilpheric and Bay ny Carrickey

       Walk 36 Scarlett Point

       Walk 37 Silverdale Glen

       Walk 38 Port Grenaugh, Port Soldrick and Cass ny Hawin

       Walk 39 Port Grenaugh and Santon Head

       Walk 40 Derbyhaven, St Michael’s Island and Langness

       Appendix A Route summary table

       Appendix B Longer waymarked walks

       Appendix C Useful contacts

       Appendix D Further reading

       Appendix E Glossary of Manx terms and place names

      Descending into Glen Maye (Walk 22)

      Looking forward to Niarbyl from Lhiattee ny Beinnee (Walk 31)

      INTRODUCTION

      The northern tip of the island seen from the Millennium Way above Ramsay

      For most people, the Isle of Man is an enigma: often heard, sadly, is the comment ‘I’ve always wanted to go, but never got round to it’.

      Few would think of the island as a walker’s paradise – yet it is, as this book will demonstrate. Fewer still know anything about the island, save that it has an annual motorcycle race of some severity, that it is something of a tax haven, that Manx cats have no tails, and (I’m pushing it now) the island’s bishop has the title ‘Bishop of Sodor and Man’. Very few could explain the way the island is governed: is it part of Britain? (no); the United Kingdom? (no); the Commonwealth, then? (yes). Yet, the Isle of Man is at the very centre (give or take) of the British Isles, roughly equidistant from the other countries. Indeed, they say that on a clear day it is possible to see seven kingdoms: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Man, and the kingdoms of Heaven and the Sea.

About the Isle of Man

      The name of the island has some interesting derivations. Julius Caesar mentions an island ‘In the middle of the Channel’ (by which he meant the Irish Sea), which he called ‘Mona’, a name also associated with Anglesey, off the North Wales coast. This confusion wasn’t eased when Pliny the Elder, writing in AD74, listed the islands between Britain and Ireland, and included Mona, by which he probably meant Anglesey, and Monapia, which is thought to have been the Isle of Man. Paulus Orosius (circa AD400) refers to ‘Menavia’, a place ‘of no mean size, with fertile soil, inhabited by a tribe of Scots’. The geographer who visited Britain at the time of Hadrian called the island ‘Monaoida’, while an Irish monk, Nennius (AD858), refers to ‘Eubonia’. Later still, the Irish and Welsh forms become more consistently used, ‘Mannan’ and ‘Mannaw’ respectively. The first name-form occurring on the island is on a runic cross in Kirk Michael, ‘Maun’. Today, it is known as ‘Mannin’, ‘Vannin’ or ‘Ellan Vannin’, the island of Man. Those of a more romantic inclination, however, will opt for the view that the name refers to a Celtic sea god, Manannan, the equivalent of the Roman sea god, Neptune, or the Greek, Poseidon.

      Above Sulby Reservoir (Walk 7)

      An island in the Irish Sea, situated mid-way between England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, the Isle of Man has a land mass of some 572km2 (221 square miles) and measures, at its extremities, 52km (32½ miles) by 22km (13¾ miles). Geographically it is part of the British Isles, a dependency of the British crown, but it is not part of the United Kingdom. The capital is Douglas, and other towns of size are Ramsey, Peel and Castletown. Government of the island is through the 24 representatives of the House of Keys and a nine-member legislative council, which together make up the Court of Tynwald (the oldest surviving parliamentary body in continuous existence in the world), passing laws subject to the royal assent. Laws passed at Westminster only affect the island if adopted by Tynwald.

      The principal industries are light engineering, agriculture, fishing, tourism, banking and insurance. The island, which has a population of 86,683 (2014), produces its own coins and notes in UK currency denominations, and while UK money can be used on the island, Manx notes are not accepted in the UK. The language is English, though there is a true Manx language, closer to Scottish than Irish Gaelic, which almost died out last century but which has increased in popularity recently. Today, Manx Gaelic is spoken by 2.2 per cent of the total population, a figure which rises to 6.5 per cent in the north of the island.

      What the island lacks in size it makes up for in its variety of scenery, which reflects almost every type of landscape found elsewhere in the British Isles, from open moorland to thickly wooded glens, sandy beaches to bare mountain tops, limestone spreads to volcanic basalts. The principal rivers are the Santon, the Silver Burn, the Neb-Thenass, the Sulby and the Dhoo and Glass (ie Douglas). Within the 160km (99 miles) of coastline lies a central range of mountains and hills running north-easterly/south-westerly, from which well-defined valleys descend to cliffs and sheltered bays. In the north of the island the landscape is flat and crossed by slow-moving rivers and streams that debouche onto long sandy beaches. Cutting obliquely across the island, generally at right angles to the main axis, is a central valley with Peel at its western end and Douglas at its eastern.

      The watershed, or water-parting, which follows the north-east–south-west axis, has long been important as the fundamental line of separation of the island into ‘Northside’