Welcome to the Isle Man

I’m finally getting back to our recent trip to the UK in May and June.  Gosh, where do I begin?

Our final destination on our trip was the Isle of Man, where we were to watch the TT motorcycle races.

I’ll start by sharing a map of the island to put things in perspective.  It is located bang smack in the middle of the Irish Sea and on a good day, from the highest point, you can see Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales.   It is about thirty miles long and thirteen miles wide.  The course of the TT motorcycle races is marked in red and is 37 3/4 miles long, travelling through towns, villages, country lanes with walls and hedges alongside, to the open mountain section.

We stay in Castletown, towards the south of the Island.  The capital is Douglas, with Ramsey, Peel and Port Erin being the other main centres.

We always stay in the same little row of cottages.  In fact, the last minute availability of one is what triggered this trip taking place.  They have recently been sold and we were the first guests under the new management.  

This time we were in “Ard Lee”, the middle one.  A coat of blue paint has freshened them up and there has been some minor changes in the decor inside, other than that, they are pretty much the same as they previously were.  I’ve given a little tour of one back here on a previous visit.  

For transport, we were very fortunate to obtain a hire car, given how busy the island gets.  Firstly, we had a little Hyundai i10 for two weeks.

Before having to swap to a Vauxhall Corsa for the last week.  They were both good little runabouts and most importantly, were small.

Once our accommodation and transport were under control it was three weeks to just play it by ear.

Mick’s birthday was on our first day, so we treated ourselves to dinner at the local pub and I had to make a meal of Queenies.  They are a small scallop found in the local Manx waters.

We arrived on the island a few days before the motorcycle proceedings started so had some time to play the tourist.

This was our sixth time to visit the Isle of Man and way back on our first visit in 2007 Mick became friends with Al, a local that lives just down the road from where we stay.  We have stayed in constant contact with him ever since, so it was nice to spend time with him.  We didn’t tell him we were coming…..let’s face it, we didn’t even know ourselves until just a couple of days before, so it was a bit of a surprise when we knocked on his door.

It has been a fun ongoing challenge to find places that we haven’t visited previously.  It has been surprising how much there is to see on such a small island.  Al really loves his island and does a lot of walking, so took us to some of his favourite places.  We were fortunate to have good weather on our first walk.  Notice I’m even wearing a T-shirt.

Our first walk was all around the Port St Mary village in the south of the island.

From there we went Scarlett, on the coast just near Castletown for another short walk.  We just loved this old stone wall.

Mick really liked this stile.

The aim of this walk was to show us the old lime kilns built into the side of the coast, so the lime could be shovelled into the kilns from above and the burnt lime could be loaded onto boats.  Such amazing stonework. 

The coastline is so scenic with the spring flowers, mainly pink thrift.

It was a really enjoyable morning.

Later in the day Mick and I went out to have a wander around St Michaels Isle, or as the locals call it Fort Island.

The island is connected to the main island via a causeway.

It also has a rugged beauty, with the wildflowers on the rocky terrain, complete with nesting birds.

The fort dates back to 1645 and was built to defend the island during the English Civil War.

There is also the ruins of St Michaels Chapel, dating from the 11th Century.

It was a very enjoyable day of exploring……and enjoying the nice weather.