Raad Ny Foillan I read about the costal path around the Isle of Man whilst looking at some information about The Munroes in Scotland. I had a surplus of holiday to use up and decided to walk the Raad Ny Foillan (Manx for The Gull Road) in early summer 2004. As it was a school holiday my mum came along too. The path is officially 95 miles long although there are various estimates around this figure. Scroll down to the bottom of this page for a basic map. DAY ONE We took the 2.5 hour seacat ferry crossing from Liverpool Dock to Douglas with a number of bikers heading over for the first week of the TT festival. When we arrived we headed north (or right) and began our loop of the island in an anti-clockwise direction with our tent and camping gear on our backs. Apparently the more common direction to go is clockwise although I enjoyed this way as the more interesting parts - the hills - were in the latter part. Our first days walking took us from Douglas through Laxey where we stopped for a drink in a pub in Old Laxey. We met a really helpful female police officer who told us there was a campsite in Dhoon where we stayed that night after visiting the ancient King Orry's Grave. We had covered 13 miles. DAY TWO We set off fairly early and it seemed pretty hard going as it took much longer than anticipated to get to Ramsey - our destination for breakfast. The section getting towards Maughold Head meandered a lot but the views from the top were superb. We had lunch outside a seafront cafe and then walked a particularly challenging 5 mile section along a pebble beach, it was sapping. We got to the Point of Ayr - the northernmost point of the island. We then turned south-west and walked among the dunes for a further three miles before camping wild in The Ayres. We had covered 19 miles. 32 miles all together. DAY THREE Another early start after an early night. We continued along the dunes for several more miles. We joined a path that followed a disused railway and caught up with two elderly ladies walkling their dogs. They invited us in for tea and a biscuit and filled us in on the nuances of the TT festival - when the sessions take place, good places to watch, who's good, how many deaths they've had so far - and also told us about life on the Isle of Man. We stopped at a pub in Kirk Michael for lunch with a number of bikers from various places. There was a group of Swiss chaps who were big into that American leather and chrome approach to motorcycling, After lunch we continued along the old railway towards Peel. Once in Peel we had a wander round and found a council run campsite on one of the main roads back towards Douglas. We had covered 21 miles a total of 53 miles from Douglas. DAY FOUR An inspired decision. The campsite was good. The bags were really heavy. Why not leave the stuff here and come back after a days walking? Thus avoiding carring all the stuff, looking for a campsite, putting the tent up etc. The freedom of not having the bags felt much easier. We walked into the town centre and up Patrick Hill - featured on the picture above - and followed the coast south. We stopped at a hotel in Dalby for a drink before heading down to the stunning Niarbyl Bay, which we were told featured in the film Waking Ned by lots of people. The path was much less worn now and at times was very narrow with steep drops down to the cliffs and sea. We climbed the steep and tall Cronk ny Arry Laa and then went back down to go back up Bradda Hill, which had fairly recently been the victim of a fire and was charred and dusty. The path then went round to Port Erin and seemed to take an age to get there. We went past an interesting looking disused swimming pool/water park that harked back to the era when the Isle of Man was a hot tourist destination. We stopped at a cafe at the end of the beach and had a drink whilst a group of young Asian people inflated a boat and seemingly rowed out to sea. I'm not sure where they went but I'm sure the Coastguard picked them up. We picked up the path at the other end of the seafront where it rather strangely resumed behind a marine research building. We walked around to the peninsular taking in the Calf of Man island, some seals, The Chasms and a number of dry-stone walls before we got to Port St Mary where we got a cab back to Peel as we'd just missed the last bus. We'd covered another 22 miles, bringing the total to 75 miles. DAY FIVE We took a bus in the morning back to Port St Mary and picked up where we had left off the previous evening. After walking for a few miles we were caught out in some pouring rain for a little while, long enough for my shoes to become wet through. We got to Castletown fairly quickly and from what I recall it looked quite nice but as it was raining we didn't amble around to get a feel for the place. We walked around past the main island airport at Ronaldsway and on up the coast to Cronk ny Merriu fort. The weather had cheered up but we were starting to ache. The path took an annoying detour inland where a landowner must have not permitted the path to continue over their stretch of coastland. The detour ended at Port Soderick another testiment to the island's past glories. There are a number of concrete buildings and structures that were built to attract tourists. It looked like the pub had only recently closed and it seemed that there was a company offering cruises to and from Douglas but it looked like they might have moved on too. The path climbed up steps to the start of the Marine Drive, a name that conjours up images from a bygone era. Marine Drive itself was also shut to traffic as it can no longer take the weight but it was being used by people for walking, running and cycling. We followed the road until we were back in Douglas. Another 20ish mile day completing the 95 mile loop! ©JB 2005 - Made in Hertford, UK Think freely, eat well, bundle more