BRITTOUR 2001: ISLE OF MAN

The AMA UK/Isle of Man Tour (25 Aug - 6 Sep)

(Remember, click on a blue underlined link to see a new page, click on photos to see a larger photo, close the window when done with the page/photo to come back to this page.  Close this page to go back to the start page.)

We spent several days on the Isle of Man, a small island in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland.  There is only one way to get a bike to the Isle - by a ferry from Liverpool or another city serving the island.  We went there on a large twin-hulled catamaran ferry (about 2 hours to cross the water).  The trip was very smooth but in rough seas, the cat won't go out (if you own a cat, you know that isn't too odd).

The island is part of the AMA tour because of its two motorcycle events, the TT (Tourist Trophy) Festival Fortnight (late May/early June time-frame) and the Manx Grand Prix (late August time-frame).  Racing motorcycles on the roads of the Isle began in 1907 - average winner's speed was around 40 mph.  Today, the winner's average speed is around 120 mph (and if you ride the 37 mile circuit, you won't believe that such average speeds are possible).  The route is on the primary (two lane) roads on the center and northern end of the island (see the map, below), through towns and villages.  Bruce told us that the isle becomes grid-locked during the races with bikers from all over in attendance.  There were no races in 2001 because of an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease in England.

In the first table, there is a map of the island.  This one doesn't show all the really narrow roads but gives the layout of the island. The next two photos show our group in Liverpool "queuing up" for the ferry.  After arriving in Douglas (next two photos), we went down the east coast to Port Erin to stay at the Cherry Orchard hotel.  Brenda impressed on us the importance of saying "hello" to the fairies (the mythical kind, not the gay ones).  There is a Fairy Bridge on the A5 route near Santon (last photo, 1st row).  Brenda said there was a local belief/myth or superstition that you had to say "hi" to the fairies to avoid trouble.  I did, just to be safe (as an Irishman, how could I not believe in the "little people"?).  Ned and Patty didn't, and they had the only serious accident of the trip when they plowed into a SUV.  Now, I'm not saying there's a causal relationship here . . .
 

Ned broke his leg and Patty's toe (well, he WAS driving) and they wound up spending the rest of the trip in Port Erin.  (They rejoined us in Windsor the last night we were together as a group [doing quite well, all things considered]).  Steve, the chef of the Cherry Orchard hotel (and a biker) told us of a website that should be visited if you plan to visit the Isle.  The website, Rural Trader, has information on lodging, getting there, things to see/do, and information about the races on the island.   Be sure to click on the motorcycle icon and the AMA Tour icon at the site for useful information.  The first two photos in the bottom row of the table above show some of the our arrival on the Isle at Douglas.

The next table shows some photos of castles on the Isle.  Both Castle Rushen and Peel Castle were used by the early rulers of the island to keep the local Celts/Manxmen in line. The first is the one in Castletown on the southeast coast.  The rest of the photos are of Peel Castle on the west coast.  It's on what used to be St. Patrick's Island off the town of Peel.  This fort began as a Viking stronghold (built around 1000 a.d.) and other rulers added on top of the fort, built two chapels and increased the height of the "curtain wall" (the wall around the castle).  Also over time, the narrow channel between St. Patrick's Island and Man silted up - today there is a short causeway linking the two islands.
 

One nice ride is from the west coast town of Peel south on the A27, then south on the A36. You ride through some pretty high country with terrific vistas of the island, especially the southern end.  But there are a number of fine primary and secondary roads that criss-cross the island - you can take almost any road and find outstanding views of the countryside (not to mention Ireland, Scotland, and islands off the Scottish coast in the distance).  The last table shows some of the photos I took while bumming around the Isle.  We had dinner as a group on Thursday at Sartfield Farm Restaurant near Cronk-y-Voddy on the west coast.  This place had a phenomenal view of the Irish sea from the dining room and the sunset, though cloudy, was still very pretty.  The last photo on the second row shows the village of Cregneash near Port Erin.  It's a village that has been "restored" to a typical Manx village of the last century, a living museum.  The movie, "Waking Ned Devine" was shot in this village.