Shane and I are taking a short weekend trip to the Isle of Man, sure why wouldn’t you… they have a parkrun! It’s a 50 minute flight from Dublin, although to be honest we are only about ten minutes in the air when the pilot announces we are coming back down …. I swear to God… it’s windy today so maybe that’s a factor, but this is the shortest flight I’ve ever been on!!! It’s a small airport and there’s a bus outside that goes to the Promenade in Douglas so it’s all very easy to get to our hotel. Once we drop the bags we go out for a walk along the prom.
The promenade is very nice and although it’s a bit cold, it’s a lovely Friday evening as we walk along and take in the coastline. There’s a peculiar looking “castle” type building out in the water that looks almost pretend to me. I find out later it’s the Tower of Refuge and it was erected in 1832, in order to afford shelter to mariners wrecked on the rock. I’m very impressed now I know it’s real!!
After our walk along the promenade, we go for a drink to the Rovers Return (🤣). There’s a good choice of ales and cider so we’re both happy. It’s a bit of a mad rocker bar and we enjoy the tunes🤘.
Having enjoyed “a couple”, we walk toward the river and spot “Little Fish Cafe”, which is one of the go-to spots we’ve heard of. It looks busy but we peep our head in just in case and they can fit us in… yay! The food is delicious and we have our first “Queenies”, which are tiny scallops.
On the way back we find the Bee Gees statue on the prom – a big highlight for any trip to the Isle of Man.
Next morning we are up early for the 9am parkrun. It’s kind of the main reason we are here (well mine anyway!). It’s just over a twenty minute walk to Nobles park and although it’s windy and cold, we are very lucky that the sun is shining. The TT race, which was on last week, actually finished right by where we were running.
In the afternoon we take the historic Isle of Man Steam Railway from Douglas to Castletown. The railway dates from the 1870s and is still one of the island’s iconic experiences. The journey time is just over 30 minutes and the views along the way are lovely.
We reach Castletown and wander around the small town and see the giant crane!
Castletown was the Manx capital until 1869 and the centre of town is dominated by Castle Rushen, a medieval castle, originally built for a Viking king.
We have lunch at The George and there are Queenies on the menu – these ones are even better than last nights – they’re so good!
We walk to the harbour – we’re so lucky with this weather considering it’s October.
Time to head back to the train and another gentle journey back to Douglas.
Tonight we have dinner at Naadu Indian restaurant and it’s one of the best Indian meals I’ve ever had… they even serve Queenies… yep that’s 3 meals in a row!! It’s very fancy and the lovely person serving us even gets a recipe from the chef for me!!
Next morning we walk the length of the promenade to the Manx Electric Railway for our next train journey on this tiny island!
It takes a little over an hour to travel the 17.5 miles, along the coastline, to get to Ramsay.
We sit inside as it’s too cold to be in the outside cabin and it’s beautiful all the way there.
There’s not much to see in Ramsey but they do have a swing bridge!
After a brief look around we get back on the train and head back to Laxey. This is home to the Great Laxey Wheel, which is the largest surviving working water wheel in the world.
At Laxey, we switch to yet another train and climb to the top of Snaefell mountain. Halfway up is a great view of where the TT motorbike race passes through.
Snaefell (meaning Snow Mountain), is the highest peak on the Isle of Man and on a clear day you can see Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, allegedly!!
We have a nice walk around Laxey and walk to the next station to get on the train back to Douglas. It’s all about the old modes of transport on the island and next for us is the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway. The poor horse drags a full tram load of us… terrible really!
Back in Douglas we head out for a pint and have a giant carvery dinner at the Barbary Coast restaurant/bar – it’s giant but we didn’t have any lunch so we are all in!!!
Next morning we visit the Manx museum to avoid the rain and take the bus back to the airport for the flight home.
