The Isle of Man

The catalyst for our visit to the UK was to visit the Isle of Man for two weeks to watch some motorcycle racing.  This was our fifth visit to the lovely little island.

I'll give you a little background before I start sharing what we got up to.

The Isle of Man (IOM) lies in the middle of the Irish Sea and on a good day you can see England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland from its highest peak, Snaefel.  It is about 30 miles long and 13 miles wide.  The area may be small, but there is so much to see and do.

There are two main motorcycle racing events.  The main event is the TT, which is held in early June.  We have travelled over to watch that event three times.  The course is 37 3/4 miles long and is marked in the bold red line on the above map.  The IOM TT is considered the most famous road race in the world and is also considered the most dangerous.  The best riders average over 130 miles per hour over the entire course, which travels through towns, villages, open high country and lanes edged by walls and hedges.  Rather extraordinary.  The event runs over two weeks.  The first week has practice every evening and the second week has racing every second day.  This allows for poor weather or other incidents that can stop racing.  The high country in particular is susceptible to hill fog, which not only limits visibility for the riders, but also the rescue helicopter.  Also, the weather can vary considerably over the length of the course.

The other event is held in late August.  It is the Manx GP (MGP).  Five years ago they expanded that event to become the Festival of Motorcycling and have added Classic TT races.  It is a more laid back event with less visitors but attracts more classic bikes.  Late August is also a nice time of year.  The course and format are the same as for the TT.

When we visit the IOM we stay in the township of Castletown, which funnily enough has a castle - Castle Rushen, which is still used for official administrative purposes.  You can even get married in the registry office there.  Notice the clock only has one hand.  That is how it was made in Elizabethan times.  Yes, it still works.

I won't share a great deal of Castletown as I did so when we last visited in 2013.  If you have a little look here and here you will get a good overview.  We always stay in the same cottage, in a row of three.  This year we stayed in the one in the middle, next door to our usual one, but it was basically the same.  You can check out the cottage here from when we last visited.

As you can imagine, having visited four times before, we have seen most of the obvious tourist attractions, so now we are a little more laid back and seek out more obscure and not so obvious spots to visit.  Believe me, there is a never ending supply of things to see and do.  I went with a few things in mind that I would like to do or see.  Some we achieved, others still remain for another time.

I'm not going to do these posts in a chronological order, rather just grouping bits and pieces together over the next little while.  I hope you enjoy tagging along.