Maughold

Saints and Dolphins

 

Monday 8th July 2013

 

This week Dorothy suggested "How about a Port Mooar, Maughold walk on Monday.   A nice sunny coastal walk again, always good for photos and not too long a walk in the heat."   She was right about the heat.   It was sunhat weather - with a vengeance. 

 

There were only three of us walking.  Tim stayed at home to arrange for the heating engineers to fix a minor leak from the outlet of our new hot water cylinder - so I drove on my own to Port Mooar.

 

Jack's Lane, our usual route up to the Dreemskerry Road, was still closed so we decided to take the shorter route back to Port Mooar at the end of the walk - up the main road through Maughold village. 

 

We started along the coast and I kept a look out for seals and flowers.  I was worried about the battery in my camera.  I checked before we left home and it was only indicating one third of the charge left - so I took the old camera as back-up.  Of course, as soon as I turned my camera on to take a photo of some bindweed growing on the shingle, the red battery warning symbol started flashing - so I switched to the old one.  It was a pity because it turned out to be a walk where the extra zoom on my newer camera would have been a great help.

 

Trevor saw a common blue butterfly settle on the path but it had its wings upright so we could only see the underside of the wings.

And there are patches of white daisy-like flowers growing on the shingle in one little cove.  I had always assumed that they were scentless mayweed because that is the only illustration in my little book "Wild Flowers of the Isle of Man" which matches their appearance.  But life is always more complicated than one expects.  When I looked them up on the internet, I discovered the almost identical sea mayweed (Tripleurospermum maritimum) which is a more likely candidate.  It is a better match for location and the fact that I think these plants are perennial and the scentless mayweed is an annual.

We found a couple of seals - but they were right out at the edge of the rocks.  The little camera couldn't cope with the distance - but here is proof that they were there.

Trevor walked right out on the rocks hoping for a close-up photo but the seals suspected his motives and took to the water.

Dorothy was also on a seal hunt.

I found a couple of interesting and colourful moths feeding on some sheep's bit flowers.  I think they are 6 spot Burnet moths (Zygaena filipendulae).  The hind wings are crimson so they look even more colourful in flight.

Along the shadier, north-facing, part of the path we came across some lovely orchids.  There were a variety of colours but I think they were all common spotted orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) which are widely variable in colour and height.

We stopped to take a few photos over the wall of the churchyard before walking up to the car park at Maughold Head.  We passed an artist painting a picture of the view towards North Barrule.  I noticed that he had chosen to make North Barrule look steeper than it is in real life - the opposite effect to my camera which manages to flatten even the steepest slopes.  This is annoying when you are trying to impress people with the size of the hills that we climb on the Island.

 

The church, in fact the village and the whole parish, are named for St Maughold.  The story is that he was a notorious Irish outlaw who was converted to Christianity by St Patrick.  As a penance for his evil former life he was chained and cast adrift at God's mercy in a tiny coracle.  There was a padlock on the chains and the key of the lock was thrown into the sea.  The boat drifted to the Isle of Man and he came ashore and remained here.  Shortly before he took holy orders, the cook found the key to his chains in the belly of a fish and Maughold was released from his chains and eventually became a much loved bishop.

 

There is an irreverent poem about St Maughold at this link http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/manxsoc/msvol16/p220.htm   and a rather more serious account here http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/fim/fim05.htm

 

On the steep hillside below the car park is St Maughold's well.  We had time to spare because of the abbreviated route so we decided to walk down to visit the well.  My Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Isle of Man mentions " . . . the well where, according to tradition, St. Maughold was refreshed on arrival from Ireland.  In later times, people drank the waters on the first Sunday in August in the hope of being cured from their ills."  This little well must have taken over the identity and legendary powers of another earlier well which used to exist in the churchyard.  There is an almost sheer drop down to the sea below the well and it is hard to imagine how a man, in chains and after spending an alleged 20 hours in an open boat, would be able to climb up to the present well from the sea. 

 

There is an extract from Jenkinson's Practical Guide 1874 (Ramsey Section) which describes the well at  http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/parishes/md/mdwell.htm    . . . or, if you have great stamina, you can wade through the whole Ramsey Section which includes "A Walk to Maughold Head"  and even a paragraph on Glen Auldyn at http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/jk1874/p182.htm#183a

We lingered on the path by the well looking down at the seabirds far below.  It was hard to identify them from that distance but we saw cormorants flying in to the foot of the cliff and wondered whether they had a nesting site there.  Then a fishing boat chugged past towards Ramsey harbour . . .

. . . and we were amazed to see a group of dolphins swim out to join it!

 

 

We have been on the Island for 23 years and Dorothy has been here for three or four years longer than us - and it is the first time we have seen dolphins.  Trevor has lived here since 1959 and has seen them before but not for very many years.  It was an incredible sight.  They approached the boat and then split up into smaller groups and then all got back together again before continuing their journey south along the edge of Ramsey Bay.  We think they must have been bottlenose dolphins because they were too acrobatic to be porpoises and the only other dolphins which we get here are the Common dolphins which have tan patches on their sides and Risso dolphins which are very pale.

 

We continued on our way along the Brooghs towards Ramsey.  I liked the view of the distant town behind the foxgloves.  I always think of foxgloves as the iconic summer wildflower.  Snowdrops signify the promise of winter's end.  Daffodils mark the beginning of spring and bluebells are the flowers of late spring.  Then the first buttercups mean that summer is on its way - but the foxgloves are the flowers of high summer.

On the road back to Maughold village we had to stop while this large truck was being manoeuvred through a narrow farm gate - which looked about half as wide as the truck.  It never ceases to amaze me how these drivers manage to reverse through such awkward places.  There couldn't have been more than half an inch clearance on either side. 

 

There wasn't much else to photograph along the road apart from these wild white roses.  They don't quite fit the description of field roses so they are probably dog roses (Rosa canina) although dog roses are more commonly pink.

I got left behind again - trying unsuccessfully to photograph a bumble bee on some pink roses and when I got back to the cars the others were staring out to sea.  Far from the shore we could see the dolphins passing Port Mooar on their journey south.  Dorothy said they were giving us an encore.

 

PS  I am thinking of starting a rumour that St. Maughold was escorted to the Isle of Man by some friendly dolphins!