03-Oct-2024
From The Lhen, you can easily walk to Jurby along the beach, and there's lots that's of interest en route:
Oyster-catchers
We think these are grey plover, described here as "a chunky plover", which sounds a little impolite to me
Eider: "a large seaduck"
You turn inland at a place called Sartfield (which is confusing, as the Sartfield I knew as a child was somewhere completey different).
And close by is The Old Guardhouse Coffeehouse, located in a restored World War II-era building that used to be the Guardhouse for RAF Jurby. Their scones are sensational:
It's important to load up with some energy, because next on the list is the Isle of Man Motor Museum.
The entrance charge is pretty steep, but once you've spent several hours here, looking at the truly enormous collection, you can't help but feel you've had your money's worth.
This place is huge...
And you absolutely don't have to be a petrolhead to find it interesting. I was intrigued by the stories of how the items were collected, by the little snippets of history you learn along the way, and by the massively photogenic designs:
Joey Dunlop's car
Love the tail-fins... These old American cars are MASSIVE...
Displayed as found: A product of Peel Engineering, eventually unearthed
A Russian Almaz space station shell... Yes, really...
A VA capsule, ie, a launch and re-entry vehicle
Another one
Who can look in here, and not immediately feel claustrophobic...?
One of the late queen's cars, sourced from Australia
A fairly amazing hearse...
Cool design...
Never knew someone had proposed a plan for a monorail on the old railway line between Peel and Douglas...
In sum, a really fascinating afternoon. I'm in awe of the passion that lies behind this collection.
We walked back along the road:
Great views of the land across the water
A rather handsome tholtan
And tomorrow's blackberries...