Monday, 13th October

We had a leisurely breakfast this morning.  Mathew told me he'd 'pinged' his back again just by bending over to open the dishwasher.  He'd done it before the holiday but it was fine by Saturday and also fine yesterday.  As we had done quite a lot yesterday, we had decided to do something more relaxed today anyway.  We had unusually come on this holiday with no itinerary whatsoever, so we sat down and had a look at a few things and we quickly rustled one up - mainly because Mathew asked me what I wanted to do on my Birthday on Wednesday.

We set off to Castletown again on the south end of the island.  We parked up and went into Castle Rushen which was just a stones throw away from where we parked.  It was quite large but inside, most rooms were quite small.  The courtyard featured a figure of a pasty looking man on some scaffolding repairing things - and I'm not talking about a real man, this was a mannequin!  We watched a short film on the history of the Castle which I'm quite sure was narrated Brian Blessed, before going on to investigate the rest of the castle.  It was done quite well as we went up a spiral staircase and stopped off at rooms along the way.  One had a mannequin in the garderobe (!), others had details on food, furniture, and the history of the castle in general.

It had a mixture of things going on, as the Castle was used differently at different times, originally being built for a Norse King, it was used as a fortress, a royal residence, a mint and last of all, a prison.  Quite eclectic!  The largest rooms were the Medieval banquet hall in which there was a large painting of the Battle of Bosworth (yes, HE appeared again!), a private dining room, a Main Hall and a reception room leading to the Treasury.  It was fun to explore, And once we had left we had to go and move the car.  We went for a walk around Castletown, which I had read about online and in the leaflets which we had in the cottage.  It was down as one of the best places for shopping on the island - of course I was thinking of lots of independent shops, not necessarily touristy, but a nice little market town sort of place.  Unfortunately it seems the recession has taken its toll here - walking along the two streets which had been designated 'shopping area' we came across a couple of shops such as a gallery and one gift shop, plenty of cafes, bit very little else.  We could see where there had been lots of small shops and I am sure at one time it probably was quite a busy place.  But now, it's quite empty.  Not run down, just....empty.  Only the essentials such as supermarkets, chemists and banks.

We popped into a tearoom to have some lunch - we both had a Ploughmans which was very nice - it came with pickled onions, Branston pickle and onion marmalade, Manx ham and Manx mature cheddar.  The ham was very nice, as was the cheese, although this cheddar was really very mild in taste and slightly creamy in texture (I love my cheddars....!).  After paying I discovered that I had been given two 20p pieces with a picture of Castle Rushen Clock on the tail side (I was wondering if I would get any interesting coinage as change while I was here!).

We decided to have a relaxing afternoon.  We drove to the southernmost point of the island, a promontory called Langness.  We first made our way to the top of the promontory which is called St. Michaels Island.  There were ruins of an old fort and battery here, alongside those of an eleventh century chapel.  The rocks on the coastline were rough and jagged, a bit of a miniature Scottish sort of coastline really.  We walked around for a while on here - it was very windy today but it was dry and sunny.

We then made our way south to Dreswick Point, making our way through a golf course to get there and walking around to the lighthouse, the surrounding buildings of which are now rented out as holiday cottages, apparently 4-star!  Walking back round to the car, we made our way back to the cottage for a nice cup of tea and a slice of fruitcake.