IOM - Bridges

I had a few things that I wanted to see while we were on the Isle of Man (IOM).  A couple of them were bridges.

The first ones related to fairies.  You see, the Manx people take their fairies seriously.  The purists don't call them "fairies", rather they are the "little people".  We were told by one lady that her 2nd class teacher informed them that if they called them "fairies" they would grow two left feet and forever walk around in circles.  This was not an elderly lady, she was only in her 20s!

The Fairy Bridge is located on the road between Douglas and Castletown.  Whenever you cross the bridge you have to wave and say "Hello" to the fairies.  We have heard several stories of people who failed to do this and had terrible things happen to them shortly afterwards.

We were first made aware of how seriously this was taken on our very first visit to the island.  We caught the bus from Castletown to Douglas and there was a young woman sitting in the seat in front of us.  She was dressed as a punk and looked like she would snarl at you if spoken to.  As we crossed the bridge she gave a sneaky little wave and quietly said "Hello" to the fairies.

We always stop for a photo here.  Many people leave trinkets and make wishes to the fairies.  This is a relatively new trend, which a lot of the locals don't really like.

A little while ago I read an article about the "The Old Fairy Bridge".  This I had to find.  We asked Al if he knew where it was.  To our surprise, no, he didn't.  He had a rough idea, but had never been there.  He called a couple of mates, they didn't either.  At the time, he couldn't contact his font of knowledge on all things Manx, as she was at work.  No worries, I would look it up.    The next day we both had found the information, so off we went exploring.

We walked down a little lane.  Mmm, blackberries - just make sure that  you only pick ones above dog pee level.

Until we came to a little bridge across the Middle River. (The name makes you think of Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings, doesn't it).

Don't cross the bridge, but walk along the path beside pretty little river.

There she is, hidden away in the greenery.  Once again it was a misty, moody day, which added to the magic of the place.

There is a little niche for offerings to the fairies.  Unlike the bridge on the main road, these offerings were sweet, child like ones.  There was  a plastic container on the ledge with a note to "open me", so we did.  Inside, there was a notebook and pink sharpie.  It had been placed there by a seven year old, who wanted you to write that you had visited.  So sweet.  We were surprised to see a couple of other people visiting as well.  Not as unknown as we had thought.

Mick was chuffed that we had brought Al to somewhere he hadn't visited before.

A couple of days later we dragged Al off on another expedition.  This time I wanted to see a little bridge that has been revealed as the water level of Injebreck Reservoir has dropped due to the hot dry summer the island had experienced.

I enjoyed the experience of finding these obscure places.  Al texted a mate, I got out the map.  Between us we found our way.

You can see here how low the water level has dropped.   Don't you love that even the functional parts of the reservoir have been made to look like a little castle. 

At the other end of the waterway this little bridge has been revealed.  Apparently,  in the early 20th century a small hamlet was flooded when the reservoir was created.  A lady working at the Castletown Library told us that her ancestors lived on one of the three flooded farms.  She had been hoping that the farm houses would become visible, but they are too deep.

They are poor photos, due to the misty conditions on the day.  Rather ironic, given that they are on water restrictions.

I think Al was a little underwhelmed that we drove nearly to the other end of the island to see this.  However, it was a pretty drive to get there up narrow, leafy lanes........And when we got there, we found blackberries......yum!

You can see a better photo of the reservoir taken recently here.