IOM - Fairy Doors

Having said that the Manx take their fairies seriously, they also have some fun with them, especially in Castletown, where we stay.

Our mate Al has had a few wee fairy doors on his house for quite some time.  He says it is quite funny when sometimes inebriated people knock on them late at night.

On this visit we noticed a few along the street we stay in.

We even noticed three on the steps next to the Co-op in town.

We park our  hire car in a car park just down the road from our cottage.  We noticed a couple more down there.

Don't you love that one even has a front lawn.

Now, there is a row of businesses next to the car park, one of them being Craftworks Studio, a pottery painting studio.  I had an idea....... so I popped in and enquired if they had fairy doors to paint.  Yes, they do.  They then asked me if I have been following the Fairy Door Trail around Castletown? No, I didn't even know about it.  They then gave me two brochures.  The next morning I set off with my little brochure on a fairy door hunt.

This little one was made of timber.  Very cute.

The clock in the garden beside the castle had one.

A door most befitting of the setting.

See the tiny little door to the right of the photo.  The big door is rather lovely too.

There's another one.

There were a couple down by the harbour.  This one was rather elusive.

The pepper pot lighthouses are Castletown's special feature.

I walked around to the far lighthouse.

Yep, there is another fairy door on the big door.

More doors.  This last one was rather elegant.

I only followed one of the brochures and I didn't find all the fairy doors.  I think it would be a  really fun thing to do with little kids......and big ones too.

Now, while I was going for this little walk the boys had gone off on their own adventure and I had all the morning to myself, so I headed back to Craftworks Studio.

Time to make a fairy door of my own.  The only glitch in this plan was that, being school holidays, there were very few bisque fairy doors left.  I decided to paint a little sheep one.

Time to choose colours.  I don't think I've painted anything since early high school, but nothing ventured nothing gained.

Everything about the studio is fresh and bright and Martin and Viv were lovely.

There we go.  One little sheep fairy door ready to be glazed and fired.  I would be able to collect it in a couple of days.

When I went and collected it there were some more fairy doors ready for their bisque firing. There were ones that looked more like a Manx door in this new batch. I kept popping in and towards the end of the second week they were ready for painting and I was able to visit again and paint a second fairy door.   I forgot to take in progress photos.  Time was running out for us and we thought that the second one would have to be posted to me, but they were able to squeeze it into a firing and then got it out of the kiln for me on the evening before we left.  They really did go above and beyond.

So, I suppose I'd better show you the end products.

I'm not sure where I'll put my little sheep, but we have found a home for the red door.

Now, I'll be able to visit the fairies whenever I hang the washing.

It was a fun and totally unexpected activity on our holidays and sweet little mementos to bring home.

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.

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.