Tuesday, 14th October

This morning we made our way to Maughold where we stopped to look in a cemetary which had a 'shelter' containing a number of stone crosses.  Most had celtic knot type patterns on, one in particular seemed to have runes, something which looked like Ogham (seen in Orkney) and a picture of a Viking ship.  We walked through the cemetary and up part of Maughold Head - I stopped halfway whilst Mathew went up to the top, although when he came back down he said the view wasn't that much different!  Coming back down, we walked around the rest of the cemetary before returning to the car and making our way to Ballaglass Glen. 

Ballaglass Glen is one of the many Glens on the Isle of Man, although they're not huge they're certainly worth visiting.  This Glen was very nice, with the water rushing through the centre of it forming a mixture of waterfalls and babbling streams,.  The footpath was uneven but stable, covered in tree rots and nuts from the trees along with their leaves which had turned brown and crisp.  just a couple of patches I had to be careful because of too many nuts rolling underneath my feet!  The path went along both sides of the Glen however, there were parts of it which we couldn't walk because of fallen trees and work being done to repair the pathways.  It was a shame as it would have been rather nice to walk along the other side, but we did get a few nice views of the water, and we also came across a Wizard carved out of wood, standing next to a tower of books and holding one called 'Fairy Tales'.

Finally we went on to the Great Laxey Wheel where we had our lunch before exploring.  The wheel is huge - very impressive!  After we had lunch, we went to explore.  we walked along the side of the Wheel which took us on the 'Mine Trail' and had a number of information boards along the way.  So Laxey Wheel (or Lady Isabella) was constructed in 1854 and pumped the water out of the mines beneath.  Water powered, the Wheel even has its own 'rod viaduct' on which there are evenly spaced wheels to move it up and down, on small tracks which are there just for the run of the wheel - not all the way along.

The trail took us up first to the cistern which powers the wheel, then on to the engine house and right at the end the compressor house.  In this area also was an old mine shaft known as the Welsh Shaft, the engine of which came second hand from Aberystwyth (possibly hence the name).  There was a genius invention of a lift down the shaft which was coutner weighted by a bucket of rocks, possibly ore from the mining which cut the time down which the men would have spent getting in then out of the mines.  Of course these are closed off now, but it was pretty interesting reading about how it all worked!

The trail continued to take us around the ruins, until we were back on track for returning to the Wheel, walking right by the side of the rod viaduct and underneath it to a mine entrance, which wasn't far underground but we needed a hard hat to have a look inside.  finally it was time to climb the Wheel - a spiral staircase up the back led us to a viewing platform, having seen quite a lot of the mechanics on the way up.  I took a couple of videos as a photo of the wheel at the top doesn't really do it justice...!

 
Back down again, it was time to leave.  Back in the car, we headed home via Ramsey as we had to stop off and buy some food for the rest of the week.  Ramsey had a lot more shops than Castletown, however I would say the majority of these shops are practical - hardware, food, pharmacy - yes there were a few cafes also and at least three gift shops.  There seemed to be quite a bit of renovation going on here so perhaps this town is on the up.  There were a few empty slots where small shops would have worked  but on the whole Ramsey was a nice little town with a working harbour, although not a particularly touristy place.

After finding a supermarket we did our shop and we were home by 4pm for tea and cake.