IOM - Tynwald

After our expeditions taking Al to places that he hadn't been to before, it was his turn to ask us if we knew about the original Tynwald Site.  No, we didn't.

Tynwald is the parliament of the Isle of Man (IOM) and is over 1,000 years old, dating back to Viking times.

Tynwald Hill is the ancient site located at St Johns which hosts Tynwald Day each July.

We weren't aware that there was a previous Tynwald site.  Apparently the current site has only been in use since the 13th century.....only.....

Once again we had to find where to go.  Al had a rough idea, so I got out the map.  We were joined on this expedition by Al's next door neighbour.  She used the  maps on her phone. As it turned out, it wasn't far from the reservoir we had visited previously.

We parked the car at St Lukes Church, Baldwin and walked up a little dirt road for a bit.

Before long we came to a lovely old stone stile.

The site was just up ahead on the top of the rise.

What a magnificent place.  We were surmising as to why the site was in such a remote place, as everyone would have to travel by horse or foot to attend Tynwald.  The only thing that we could think of was that, when you look at a map, it is fairly central on the island.

Emily pointed out the plants growing in the rock wall.  They are bilberries.  I'd never heard of them.  

The ripe fruit are like tiny little blueberries.  We only found a couple of ripe ones, but did find a few that weren't ready to pick.

After we'd soaked up the view for a while we walked back down the hill and had a little look at the church.

It was another wonderful outing, and once again a new place to all of us.

Did you notice that the weather played nice?

Oh, and there were blackberries....loads of them......and we didn't have a container with us.....so we just had to eat our fill. Mmmm!

If you have a mo, have a look at the links.  The information is really interesting.