A weekend in the Isle of Man
| Holiday Ratings | |
| Recommended days | 3 |
| Budget | £ |
| Difficulty | Easy |
We had been meaning to visit the Isle of Man for a long time and finally got the chance in 2015. A Douglas city break allowed us a base to explore the island, although without a car I don’t think we’d have seen half as much.
Being the UK the prices were more than it would have been to go somewhere sunny and warm but it was still a relatively cheap weekend to a much neglected part of the UK.
Other than TT week tourism doesn’t seem to be a big thing so options for car hire and hotels were more limited than normal. I can’t comment on public transport but the hire car was certainly well used!
We landed at the small airport in Douglas and collected our hire car. Although it’s lovely to get a free upgrade in hindsight a smaller car would have been better! I can see why the TT is set here, the roads are good quality and too small for cars!
On Morgan’s advice we spent the early evening exploring some of the neolithic sites near us as everything else shut at 4PM. Luckily, I thought, we had trusty TomTom to navigate us there. Sadly, TomTom’s idea of a road would make an Albanian peasant blush.
We found the first place with no problem. The second involved a 3/4 mile drive along a rutted farm track that alternated between scraping the middle of the car’s underside to plummeting us into a ditch.
Cashtalyn yn Ard
Sadly, after 3/4 of a mile it was a dead end so we had to drive back and follow an alternate route that was slightly better other than the ford with the sharp incline to grind the front skirts on. Maybe a 4*4 would have been better than a Mondeo!
Once we got there the site – Cashtalyn yn Ard – was damned impressive but the light was fading by then. We headed to Ramsey and had scampi and chips sat on the sea front before heading back to the hotel and planning tomorrow’s expedition.
Peel Castle
On the Saturday we had a pretty late start, we didn’t leave the hotel until 9.30 and headed to Peel for brekkie by the harbour. I walked up part of Peel Hill for the views and then we went in to the castle. It was far larger than expected and had a complete circuit of walls, obviously not visited by Cromwell! There was also the remains of a 12th century cathedral in the grounds with an excellent crypt.
House of Manannan
A short drive from here was the House of Manannan – a museum of Manx history. Well laid out and comprehensive, it had the replica longboat that a crew had rowed from Norway to Peel, taking 30 days!
We met Morgan here so headed for lunch and then planned an afternoon of cross viewing. Not cross, angry, but cross as in pagan/christian artistic fusions incorporating images of the cross.
Maughold
I can’t remember where we went but we visited 3 separate churches that each had a small collection of crosses inside and then collected Ellen and drove to Maughold, both for the cross collection and the cliffs. After saying our goodbyes we headed back to the hotel, in the dark, on mountain roads at about 8PM.
Douglas
Sunday was an early start for the sunrise and a nice walk along Douglas Prom. It was incredibly quiet and peaceful, a lovely walk.
Laxey Wheel
I then came back and got Deb up and we headed to Laxey Wheel, via a wrong turn and some interesting reversing ….. The wheel was the sort of place I thought I’d just take a few pics and then leave but it was actually fascinating. An amazing piece of engineering and reading about the miners lives was enlightening.
Laxey Wheel 
Laxey Wheel 
Laxey Wheel 
Laxey Wheel 
Laxey Wheel
Laxey Wheel 
Laxey Wheel 
Laxey Wheel
Castle Rushen & Abbey
After lunch we headed to Castle Rushen to meet Morgan and Freya. The castle was another gem – not that big a footprint but crammed with info and a lot to see. From there we had a quick walk around Rushen Abbey before heading to the airport to say our goodbyes and plan the next trip!
We were pleasantly surprised with our Douglas city break. There is a huge amount of history on the island and the sites we visited were not at all crowded and were generally well signposted and cared for. There were also some beaches and plenty of hill walks if you’re into that kind of thing.
2015