Chasing Salmon in Laxey

Laxey is a picturesque, former mining village whose name, derives from the Norse word for salmon.

Therefore, I suppose it made sense when it was decided to create three walks around the village to call them the Salmon Walks and they are colour coded as to their degree of length (10k or 6.2 miles, 7k or 4 miles, 3k or 2 miles) and difficulty.

There is a leaflet produced by the Laxey Commissioners (Commissioners are Manx local government organisations elected by the people of the towns/villages usually taking care of parks, public housing, street lighting etc. Only Douglas is a corporation with a town council,) that can be picked up from, Tourist Information Centre.

It is written by local historian and Blue Badge Guide, Frank Cowin, shows the routes and also points out any places of interest that you may encounter along the way.

On the day that we decided finally to explore them, Irene hadn't been too well the previous day and the weather was looking as though it might break, so we chose to do part of the most difficult one.

They are circular, so you can choose to pick them up where you please but the start of the blue and the red walks are only a 200 yards from the aforementioned TIC, so quite handy really.

Our journey began by taking the short cut onto the Baldhoon Road, across the tram tracks and by the Snaefell Mountain Railway sheds. This area is pretty hilly and we trudged up the steep hill towards Glen Ruy. It has to be said that the Salmon Walks at this stage are not particularly well signed, so be careful not to miss the turn down to Axnfell which is a public footpath just after the house with the small wind turbine (don't worry there isn't a big one but I didn't want to confuse it with one of the huge white monstrosities.)

It is fairly steep descent and difficult underfoot, so this path isn't for everyone but eventually you get to a white bridge across the river. By this time, our fears about the weather had proved totally mistaken and the sun was beating down.

There is a very pretty trail that brings you to Laxey Glen, then you cross New Road (the Village's main road) and then back down to rejoin the river.

I 'm not sure what led me to choose this route but amazingly having stopped for refreshment earlier at the Queens Hotel, we had now found ourselves in the car park of the Shore Hotel, a pub complete with its own micro-brewery.

Such was the beauty of the day, we were able to sit by the river and watch the ducks play.

We actually became impromptu marshals for the 'Lighthouse Challenge,' a cycle race which took the athletes around the length and breadth of the Island. Unfortunately, some wally had pinched the sign (more IOM navigational problems!) directing them to the the pier, so from the luxury of our pub table, we were shouting instructions to stop them whizzing past the turn off.

For a small village, Laxey is actually quite spread out, so the Commissioners in association with Bus Vannin are now providing a hopper bus that runs every half an hour. On this occasion, we hadn't quite had enough to drink to necessitate using it, though we had had enough to leave the rest of the walk for another day, so we walked back up Glen Road to catch our bus home.

Manx Nostalgia - At the Welbeck with Rodney Smythe

I am going to post a copy of this blog into the pages of a Facebook Group Page called Manx Nostalgia but I thought it may also interest a portion of the select few that follow my musings especially as I know not everyone is on Facebook or that particular group.

The FB group can be really interesting and I've learned a huge amount about the Island about which I would have had no idea, though from time to time, members are prone to looking at the past through the largest pair of 'Rose tinted spectacles' in history.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/manxnostalgia/

A couple of months ago, I received a telephone call from an Irish gentleman, a Mr. Rodney Smythe whose father had recently passed away.

While sorting through his effects, he found several invoices from the Welbeck Hotel from his family visits to the Island in the late 1950s and early 1960s and he wrote me a very nice letter (see at the bottom,) listing some of the memories which the souvenirs had evoked. You will have to double click on them to read properly.

The Welbeck in those days was run by the Corkill family and one of their sons, Philip still lives just a couple of miles away in Onchan.

Mr Smythe has promised to send me some photographs when he finds the time to sort through his father's collection, so I will post them here when they arrive.

I may also reproduce my potted history about the life of Alexander Gill who built this Hotel (and half of Douglas) at some stage and if anyone has any documents or photographs, they think might be of interest, please feel free to send them to me either by e-mail or hard copy.

Beyond the Church - Santon Gorgeous

One of the questions that I've repeatedly been asked over the years by people from the bigger Island and beyond is 'Don't you find it very claustrophobic living in such a small place?' or words to that effect.

At risk of repeating myself, nothing could be further from the truth as I seem to be constantly finding new things to do and places that I have yet to visit and we have a wealth of venues to enjoy music, theatre and arts. Acting on a tip from a chum of mine (i.e. pinching the idea off his blog. Thanks Murray Lambden www.manxathletics.com) ) Irene and I set off for Santon Church.

Despite the fact that I have finished the Manx Telecom Parish Walk eight times, I have rarely ventured beyond the gates of many of them and to be truthful, even on this occasion with having done no research, I expected it to be a ten minute potter to the sea.

In fact, had we turned North East when we had the opportunity, this might have been the case but instead, we headed South and along a lane running almost parallel to the coastline.

It took us past Arragon Moar, a very strange modern, circular building, built by John Taylor, inventor and one of the owners of the local firm Strix which at one time was one of the World's biggest thermostat manufacturers, making them at several factories on the Island. Sadly like most of that type of industry, they are now being made in China. It has beautiful grounds and farmland, although we found the gateway to the house surprisingly understated.

Just past there, we met four other hikers who were somewhat sceptical about the claim in their guidebook that stated their entire circuit was only supposed to be 3 miles (5k.) It was a real shame they hadn't carried on just a little further because they missed some of the real highlights.

Eventually, you pick up the the Raad-ny-Foillan (Road of the Gull. the Island's 95 mile coastal footpath) though at this point it takes you along some very boggy paths where you have to traverse wooden planks to avoid being swallowed even after the long spell of dry weather.

This is a really beautiful area where you walk alongside the Santon burn which runs down to Cass-ny-Hawin an inlet much favoured by sunbathers when the weather is conducive.

From there the path follows the coast along to Port Soldrick and Jackdaw Cave which was much utilised by the Manx Running Trade (smugglers) of yesteryear. I believe you can actually sail into the cave and there is a hole in the roof where you can drag your illicit cargo.

The bird life should be amazing and there are promises of choughs, fulmars and cormorants in the guide book, though we were a little disappointed with the numbers and apart from the latter we do have to profess more than a little ignorance. We have actually bought a book but we never seem to have it with us. Like me the feathered population must have winged it for the day.

Confession time: It was the day after the Parish Walk and as I intimated earlier, we had only expected a gentle saunter, so by this stage, we were already late for our rendez-vous at the Woodie (The Woodburn Hotel to give it its official and overly grand title) to hear the tales of 'daring do' from our walking chums, so we ran the gauntlet of flies and marshland with a 'Michael Special Shortcut' across the fields.

Had we more time, we would probably have taken the route displayed in the 'Isle of Man - A Walkers Guide' by Terry Marsh to which I have provided the link below and carried on to Port Grenaugh which is another picturesque little bay. There is now little trace of the chalets that were there in the 1970s.

http://books.google.com/books?id=CKvm5ffThWAC&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=walk+port+soldrick+port+grenaugh&source=bl&ots=CUeoc7gmEU&sig=F4p9nbCDKBDPdx2ch0JdGIm-FFk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=yqW6U-3oMcnD7AbalICgCQ&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=walk%20port%20soldrick%20port%20grenaugh&f=false

Paul Gives it Full Weller at the Villa

What a place this is to live! As with everywhere, there are times when I doesn't really appreciate my surroundings. Last night wasn't one such time. The culmination of a few weeks beautiful weather produced a fabulous evening in the Isle of Man.

Last night Paul Weller (formerly of The Jam & Style Council) played the second of two sell-out gigs at the Villa Marina

We were able to go for a walk before enjoying a drink on the top of the Villa Marina Colonnade and I'm ashamed to say that we missed the support act entirely because it seemed such a shame to go inside.

My advice to anyone coming over for a short break or holiday would be to check the www.villagaiety.com website before you come to check if there is anything on, so the locals haven't snapped all the tickets up by the time you get here. If you would like to eat before you go, an early dinner or bar snack is no problem if you let us know beforehand.

It was a very good show, although I felt that he perhaps was punishing us oldies for not buying any of his new material for the last 30 years by leaving out many of the old Jam classics. That's Entertainment for you(or it would have been if he'd played it.)