Yesterday (Friday), our little village walk ended in a hail storm, and in the afternoon and evening, Storm Eunice gathered pace, and rampaged across a large swathe of the British Isles. Lower Foxdale is really not too bad a place to be during such events, and we were largely sheltered by the valley walls that surround us.

Today, we got up bright and early, and were walking before the sun had fully risen. This, our feeble attempt to get in ahead of the forecast fronts, was pretty much doomed to failure. Very soon we were being drizzled on, and the drizzle quickly turned into quite persistent rain, and then the rain turned into sleet, and the sleet into snow... Thank heavens for those new waterproofs and boots...


We parked at Archallagan Plantation, just a couple of miles from home. We walked through a stretch of the forest, emerged at Wednesday's objective, Cornelly mine, descended the path we'd ascended that day, headed east along the former Peel to Douglas railway line, and then turned up the hill, past the ancient church of St Runius, and back to the Plantation.

(By the way, if you want walk descriptions that are more detailed and specific than my rough sketches, check out Walking Mann or Gill's Isle of Man Walks.)











The parish church of St Runius, Marown, dedicated to the third Bishop of Sodor and Mann (who is thought to be buried there, along with Bishops Lonan and Connaghan), was replaced around 1860 by a church with a situation more convenient to the contemporary population. But it's still very atmospheric.





According to the story of St Trinian's and the Buggane, Timothy -- the tailor who attempted to defy the roof-removing monster by staying in the church overnight to sew a pair of breeches as soon as the (third) new roof was on, but who was forced to flee for his life by the majorly scary Buggane -- took refuge in Marown churchyard, knowing that his pursuer could not follow him onto sacred ground. The Buggane, furious that the tailor had escaped his clutches, tore off his own head, hurled it into the churchyard, and was never seen again...

The weather was really closing in by now...






Never mind. Good walk.