Up Hill To The Sea With GGR

Most of my posts this year seem to have involved walking or trains and this offering is no exception.

A week last Tuesday, it was our eldest grandchild, Kaidan's 5th birthday but as he was a little overcome with the excitement, we waited until Sunday to take him out for our treat.

This time we opted for 'The Line That Goes Up Hill To The Sea' but due to time constraints drove to Groudle.

The narrow gauge railway was first opened in 1896 to service the zoo that had been built on the headland and though it was re-opened after both World Wars, it never regained its former popularity after the zoo was closed in 1939 before finally closaing in 1962.

Twenty years later, a team of volunteers re-opened the railway, even managed to re-purchase some of the original engines and recently finally have completed the restoration of almost the full length of the line, having opened a tea room by the old sea lion pool in the last coupleof years.

It now runs on Sundays throughout the summer season and at Christmas and fortunately, we picked the final day before it closed for the winter.

You have a choice of whether to park by the holiday cottages and embark at Lime Kiln Halt or to go a little further to the Manx Electric Railway stop and walk down to Lhen Coan. Of course the more adventurous of you could also enter the Glen at Whitebridge Road Onchan to appreciate the full splendour of the surroundings but on this occasion, having a small child in tow, we opted to abandon the motor by the old hotel/cafe/pub/restaurant building which is sadly looking rather neglected these days (I'm sure the right people with the correct business plan could purchase the property and make it profitable.)

The advantage of this is that you get to travel the whole railway, just short of a mile in length and the walk down to it is really beautiful and one of the few benefits of our summer of constant deluge is that it does add a little dramatic effect to our normally placid waterways.

A single journey is £2.50 and a return is £4.00 with concessions at half price while the tea room is a very pleasant place to sit and enjoy the view from inside or out, though you do need to remember that it only serves snacks and is manned by the volunteers, so don't expect a full lunch or hot food.