Back again

Back again

Saturday 7th May, 2016

That break from posting lasted longer than I intended. Nothing was written because there was nothing to write about. We were going on very repetitious walks and there was very little happening in the garden.  Spring really dragged its feet this year.  

I also felt  that what the world needed was less words not more.  The combination of various elections and the looming referendum on the mainland has been swamping the media and social media websites with more insults, lies and unpleasantness than usual.  The only interesting thing is noticing how the selective reporting of the “news” on TV and radio amounts to subtle propaganda.  But I don’t feel too guilty about adding to the glut of words again because this is a diary and I am really just talking to myself.

I was tempted to start writing and posting photos again after a memorable walk in the woods last Saturday.  We were just going to walk up through Skyhill plantation - a walk we have done so often before that it seemed pointless to take a camera.  This was a mistake because we extended the walk and it turned out to be the type of day that should have been recorded for posterity in “glorious technicolor”.  We repeated the walk on Monday so that I could take some photos.

We walked along the mountain bike path at the top of the plantation.  It can be very muddy and we had avoided this route since  the floods last autumn.  We were surprised to find that the path had been hugely improved since our last visit.

Little drainage ditches had been scraped to drain the muddy dips where water collected.

A short “boardwalk” (sadly not quite long enough) had been constructed over one of the worst boggy bits, the source of one of the little streams that runs down the side of the glen.

Some trees had been felled to widen the track, and last winter’s  fallen trees had been cut up and dragged off the path.

And approaching the point where the path turns through a gap in the old stone wall, the path had been diverted to avoid a group of large conifers which had come down in the gales.

Above the Ballagarrow paddocks we stopped to admire the view of Ramsey.  The sun was shining again but the view wasn’t quite as spectacular on our second visit because the visibility had deteriorated and we could no longer see the snow-covered peaks of the distant Cumbrian hills.

We continued along the path to see whether the access across the stream between the south and north sides of the plantation had been improved.  We were not disappointed.  This is where we used to cross the stream after sliding down a steep bank . . .

. . . and this is the new crossing further up the hill.

When we returned along the path we met two hikers who were resting above the Ramsey view site.  They mentioned seeing this part of the plantation from the far side of the glen when they walked up to the service reservoir.  I said that we hadn’t visited the reservoir because we thought it was on private land and the one hiker replied “They don’t mind people walking up there.”  We weren’t quite sure whether the “they”, who didn’t mind, were the water authorities or the farmers that own the surrounding fields but I had been longing to walk up there so we decided to act on this rather vague second-hand permission.

On Tuesday we set off up the steep access road to the reservoir.  It starts near the old stables which are the only remaining trace of an old farm that is marked as Balleighteragh on some older Isle of Man maps - even the name has disappeared from the new editions.  The track must follow the route of the old farm road up to the fields on the eastern slope of the glen.  Near the top we had a grand view across the glen to the farm across the river, Ballagarrow.  It is now a private home with a B & B in the adjoining cottage and the old farm fields are used as paddocks for horses.  The air was heavy with the heady scent of gorse.

We were mainly interested in seeing views of the glen from a different angle.  We knew that the reservoir is underground and wouldn’t be very interesting because we can see it from the west side of the glen.  But I thought I should record the visit.

The gate into a nearby field was open so we walked across to get a better view of the little group of houses where we live and their setting below the long ridge of Skyhill.  

I had hoped to be able to photograph the glen from the same position as the photographer who took the old photos which I mentioned in an earlier blog on 24th July 2014. http://2caillagh.blogspot.com/2014_07_01_archive.html  It wasn’t possible because the trees have grown up so much in the past hundred years.  This is the best that I could do. I don’t know the date of the earlier photo but it must be pre-1930 because it shows the glen before the flood.  The only houses that can be seen in both photos are Sunnyside Cottage on the left edge of the old photo and Rivers Lea, the large three-storey house by the river - only the gable end of Rivers Lea is visible in my photo.  I may be able to get a better photo next winter before the new leaves on the trees start to block out the view.

On Thursday we walked in Skyhill Plantation again and I was inspired to visit another site which I had been wanting to see for years - the keeill on Skyhill Farm.  I had been putting off for ages because I am nervous about trespassing and I didn’t know who owned the land so I couldn’t ask for permission to visit the site.  I knew the keeill was only half a field from the edge of the plantation so I decided to sneak over the boundary fence instead of approaching from the Millennium Way which would entail a long uphill walk..

I had wondered about the remote position of the keeill.  Apart from Lag ny Keeilley (or Killey) most of the keeills are not so remote and I can’t think of any others which are on the top of windswept  hills.

The situation is not dissimilar to Cashtal yn Ard and it occurred to me that the Skyhill keeill might have been built on a site of pre-Christian religious significance so I was interested to read this plaque.

The area around the keeill and burial site has been newly fenced and there is a sturdy stile for access so it looked as though visitors are not discouraged.

Apart from this small, child-sized open grave, it was difficult to make out the various features.

The keeill itself is just a faint depression in the ground and I wouldn’t have been able to locate it without the information that it was to the south of the open grave.  

I guessed that these upright stones to the north of the open grave marked later burials.

When I returned home I Googled Skyhill Keeill to find out whether I could unearth any archeological details and discovered that another, far more serious, blogger had also visited the keeill just a couple of days before me.  It was a pity that I hadn’t read her post before I photographed the keeill as it would have given me a better understanding of the layout.  This is a link to the Manxkeeills blog https://manxkeeills.wordpress.com/  The Skyhill keeill post is labelled Keeills and Cake, Magher ny Hoarn Keeill.

Note Magher ny Hoarn is the old Manx name of the field where the keeill is situated.

Later when I was checking the date of the Battle of Skyhill I discovered some other interesting information . . . the reason for all the improvements to the mountain bike trails in the plantation.  On May 14th there will be an important mountain bike race there.  It is part of Isle of Man Cyclefest and this is the lurid description from the Cyclefest website:

BATTLE OF SKY HILL XC MTB

Isle of Man Cyclefest’s cross country mountain bike race will start and finish at Milntown Estate and boasts a leg-breaking ascent of nearby Sky Hill, site of the bloody battle between the Manx and the invading Vikings in 1079.

Competitors wind their way around the hill’s contours before descending through its challenging forest-lined single-track network before another lung-busting ascent over the heather-clad moorland. With hazards and obstacles at every turn, the Battle of Sky Hill will ensure a worthy victor pulls on the first of Cyclefest’s leader’s Yellow Jerseys!

PS  I didn’t realise that we went on such challenging and exciting walks with hazards and obstacles at every turn!

PPS  I must try to compile a catch-up post to cover the gap between this post and the previous one.