A van, a plan and the Isle of Man
Whenever you go, the Isle of Man offers a beguiling blend of historical intrigue and exhilarating activity, as Andrew White and his family discovered
Andrew White shows his family the varied delights of this little-visited treasure trove in the Irish Sea
Ask any of your well travelled caravan-owning friends where they have been with their van in the British Isles, and one place you’re unlikely to hear mentioned is the Isle of Man. And with good reason. There’s a long-standing myth that caravans are banned from the island. But that’s not true – they are just restricted, as on the fellow island of Jersey. Nevertheless, the need to obtain a permit – and to apply for it in writing – before your caravan is allowed onto the ferry can be a touch too much planning for those who prefer the more-spontaneous ‘just-pack-up-and-go’ approach that owning a caravan allows. But that would be to overlook one of the best places for a holiday in the British Isles.
So, first of all, where exactly is the Isle of Man? Well, it’s the island in the middle of the Irish Sea, and seemingly has been
placed strategically between England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Of course, if you believe the legend, the island wasn’t so much placed, but thrown – by the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill – as part of his feud with a red-haired Scottish giant.
I’ve been to the Isle of Man several times before on my own for work, but this holiday was to be the rest of the family’s first time there. I can only conclude that, by singing the island praises so much in the past, I instilled a desire in them to see for themselves just what all the fuss was about.
Getting there
I applied for the necessary permit in good time (see panel on p41), so we were all set to head across the Pennines on the M62 to the ferry port at Heysham.
The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company has two ferries that make the journey across the Irish Sea: the faster Manannan, which docks at Liverpool, and the more sedate Ben-my-chree, which docks at Heysham. This second is the one caravan owners need to use. Boarding with the caravan was a relatively painless affair, not least because we avoided having to do any reversing (not my strong point).
There are two daily departures from Heysham – at 02:15 and 14:15. We chose the more family-friendly afternoon trip, which arrives on the Isle of Man at 18:00. The journey across was troublefree, and there’s enough to do on board to help pass the time, from having a tasty meal in the café to relaxing in the lounge area. One of the benefits of being on the conventional Ben-my-chree is that, for an additional charge, you can book a four-berth cabin, which has a TV and tea/coffee-making facilities. Whether or not you want that, a great tip if you’ve got young people travelling with you is to download their favourite TV programmes to their devices in advance
‘If you believe the legend, the island wasn’t placed, but thrown – by the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill’
‘The point is to savour a trip on the original steam locomotives and carriages and re-discover a lost age of travel’
from services such as BBC iplayer or Netflix, so they can watch them with headphones in the wireless-signal-free area of the Irish Sea.
You arrive on the island at the Sea Terminal in the capital, Douglas. To reach our campsite, in the north-west of the island, we took the A1, then the A3 to Ballaugh. We arrived in with just enough time to spare to relax before bed after setting up our caravan and the associated awning.
Because of the towing capacity of our car – a Ford Grand Tourneo Connect – we’ve got what one of the smallest and lightest four-berth caravans on the market – the Xplore 304. Now, although it states it is fourberth, when it comes to floor space, we think it’s better for two… Our eldest, Alannah, didn’t like the idea of our youngest, Olivia, sleeping above her in the supplied bunk beds, so we invested in a Vango Sonoma Airbeam awning with the optional side-bedroom annexe. This meant Alannah could have her own room, we could use the top bunk for storage and we had a large living area in the awning to add space.
On our first day, we wanted to do something local. As it turned out, you can’t get much more local than the Curraghs Wildlife Park, just along the A3 from Ballaugh. This is a wonderful place, with enough to do to keep everyone occupied for a full day. The park is home to some 350 different types of animals, and we particularly enjoyed the penguins and meerkats.
When you’ve finished looking at the animals, there’s a woodland trail to explore and a miniature railway to ride on. Olivia found a children’s entertainer to watch and was very reluctant to leave, but that was all fine once she saw the pretty amazing play area, on which she spent another hour. Alannah discovered the huge jumping pillow and spent ages bouncing on that.
Educational and fun, our first day in Manxland had turned out to be a most enjoyable one.
On the right tracks
I’ve always been a bit of a railway enthusiast, and wherever we go there just happens to be a heritage railway fairly close by. Funny that. And, true to form, the Isle of Man turned out to be no exception.
Once, a large network of steam railway lines criss-crossed the island, but now only one line remains – from Douglas and around the south coast to Port Erin. Although the journey can be taken by car in around half an hour, that’s not the point. The point is to savour a trip on the original steam locomotives and carriages – and to re-discover a lost age of travel.
As we always do a lot of heritage-type visits on our holidays, I ordered four GO Explore Heritage Passes from the Manx National Heritage website before we left home (www.manxnationalheritage.im) which allows unlimited access to all the island’s heritage sites, along with free
Isle of Man transport. So no queueing.
We started our railway journey at the Douglas terminus, and after the girls and I had a look at the locomotive – No. 4 Caledonia dating from 1885, if you’re interested – we were off, travelling steadily through the Isle of Man countryside until we reached Castletown. Here, we decided to take a break in our ride to enjoy another part of the island’s heritage.
Castletown was the ancient capital of the Isle of Man, and is a short walk from the railway station. Dominating this lovely place is the medieval Castle Rushen, built for a Norse king in the 12th century and, later, the home to the Kings and Lords of Mann. We love our castles, and we found this to be a fantastically interesting museum, with lifelike settings and era-accurate decorations meaning our girls could perfectly get into character pretending they were convicts or Ladies of the Manor!
Coastal seclusion
Resuming a train journey means keeping an eye on departure times, because they aren’t as frequent as mainland services. We managed to plan our journey to reach the end of the line – Port Erin – in good time.
Port Erin is a lovely coastal village with a beautiful, secluded bay. I nipped back to the station to visit the Railway Museum next door, while everyone else had a well
deserved relax on the prom, before we all travelled back to Douglas on the last train.
There are other heritage railways on the island, but I’ll resist the temptation to document them all. That said, it’s worth mentioning the one other railway that I knew my family – and, I suspect, most other visitors – would be interested in.
The next day we drove south-east to the village of Laxey, where the Manx Electric Railway intersects with the unique Snaefell Mountain Railway. While Snowdon in Wales also has rail tracks to its summit, the Snaefell line is the only one in the British Isles powered by electricity. So, having boarded the delightful Victorian tramcar, we started our steady ascent to the summit.
A unique peak
Snaefell is the island’s only mountain, and while its height of 2036ft means it would only be the 125th highest fell in the Lake District, here it dominates all around. So much so, that it is the only peak where you can see all Seven Kingdoms (no, not the Game Of Thrones ones…) – England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man and the kingdoms of heaven and the sea. That’s on a good day. Which we didn’t have.
By the time we reached the summit, a thick carpet of cloud had descended, so in the end we saw absolutely nothing! Compensation came in the form of a lovely hot chocolate in the summit café.
Laxey is also the home of another of the island’s iconic landmarks: the Great Laxey Wheel. The largest surviving waterwheel of its kind in the world is just a short walk from the Laxey station beside the Laxey River.
I’d seen pictures of this wheel, but nothing prepares you for the sheer size of it in real life. It’s huge, towering over you with a diameter of over 22 metres. If you’re brave – like our kids were – you can climb to the viewing platform at the top for an astonishing view of the Glen Mooar Valley.
While we were there, we took a tour of the old mine that the wheel was built to pump water from, and learnt about the lives of the miners in days gone by.
We decided we couldn’t visit the Isle of Man without ‘doing’ Douglas properly. So we took a trip along what is part of the 37¾mile TT motorcycle racing course on the A3 into Ramsey, and then along the A18 past the infamous Ramsey Hairpin. After that it was up onto the mountain road which runs beside Snaefell and into Douglas.
Douglas is the largest town, and has a different vibe to the rest of the island: noticeably faster-paced (albeit not as much as similar-sized places in the UK).
The town is built around the two-milelong sweeping bay, which, if you get a lovely sunny day, is a pretty stunning place to wield a bucket and spade for a few hours. There are plenty of places to go shopping and to eat, but most of the best eateries are away from the main prom and alongside the harbour, not too far from the Sea Terminal.
Before we left the prom, though, I couldn’t resist a ride on the Douglas Horse Tram. Dating back to 1876, this is the oldest horse tramway in the world. I must say, the horses certainly looked very good for their age…
Rocky adventures
If you’re feeling adventurous, the island nature of the Isle of Man throws up some amazing opportunities for coasteering. If you’re not familiar with this activity, it’s where you move along a rocky coastline either by climbing, scrambling or swimming – without the aid of boats or other craft. There was general enthusiasm among our gang for this, although my wife cunningly pointed out that we would need someone on the shore to take photos.
Our day began with the donning of suitable wetsuits at the headquarters of coasteering specialists Adventurous Experiences, then driving to Peel. After parking in the Fenella Beach car park, we were briefed on what we were going to do and how to do it safely.
Then it was into the water. The shoreline we were trekking around was the little island of St. Patrick’s Isle just off the coast of Peel. This is a craggy, rocky coastline, and Alannah and I were led on a fantastic journey along some difficult terrain. If you can imagine rock climbing with the constant spray of the tide washing against you, you can picture it.
Olivia wasn’t a strong enough swimmer at the time to do the full adult course, so she was led by an instructor around a safer trek, but she still had a full-on experience.
When we reached the far side of the island one of the instructors told us all to jump, one by one, into the clear but foreboding sea below. I can understand why Olivia was taken on a separate trip, because it took all my strength to swim against the current to reach the shoreline and climb up to the top. It was an exhilarating, never-to-be-forgotten experience, yet we were glad to be in the hands of experts looking out for our safety.
Viking vantage point
After the journey around St Patrick’s Isle, it seemed fitting to dry off with a visit to the building on its peak – Peel Castle. Built by the Vikings in the 11th century, it remains an impressive sight, with many of its original features still intact. Olivia particularly enjoyed the rather steep grassy bank she could roll down. I’d advise climbing to the top of the Gatehouse Tower for a fantastic panoramic view of Peel and the sea beyond.
Then, all too soon, it was time to decamp and head back to the ferry terminal. There’s something quite melancholy about letting the air out of the awning and hooking the car back onto the caravan, but as we waved goodbye to Douglas Bay back on board the Ben-my-chree, I felt sure this wouldn’t be the last time the whole family would spend some quality time on the Isle of Man.