Two days ago, we planned to climb a mountain to see the sun rise, but did neither, and yesterday we climbed a mountain, but not until the sun was well up. So today was sunrise day. Our sun-spotting point of choice was Ramsey, and the plan was to follow our daybreak experience with a walk that would thread together some of the many tracks around Lhergy Frissell and the Albert Tower.

The sun's performance did not disappoint:




Then we were off:








One of the things I truly love about the Island, I realize, is that you're never far from a bit of wildness... Just beyond the woodland and the sun and the purling streams, there's moorland and looming cloud and total unpredictability:


We've climbed quite a bit by now, and the views are really opening out:



The Albert Tower was built to commemorate the visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1847: "Prince Albert was rowed ashore at Ballure where he made his way up the glen. [Gosh, we might have followed in those royal footsteps only this morning... I hope HRH enjoyed the birdsong as much as we did...] Then into Lhergy Frissell, where he climbed to the top of the hill. There he viewed the surrounding town of Ramsey and the northern plain. [Yes! We did, too!] The hill was renamed Albert Mount and a year later the foundation of the tower was laid."

A little seat has been set up by the door, in honour of a lady who lived a long life, and loved that place. That's where we ate our chocolate brazils...




It was an unexpected bonus, when we arrived back at the promenade, to witness the RNLI team practising with their brand new Shannon Class lifeboat. Personally, I wouldn't want to be the driver of the "pusher", which has to go in really quite deep in order to float the boat. But all went swimmingly: