Braaid

 

Monday, 12th August, 2013

 

We were driving home from B&Q, a big DIY store near Douglas, last week and, as we passed Braaid, Tim mentioned that he had read an article about the Braaid archaeological site and that it might be interesting to visit it.  It is an important site but for some reason we had never been there . . . probably because it is near a busy road and isn't possible to incorporate into a hike without a lot of road walking.  Also it is possible to look down on it from the road and see the stones in the distance.   

I told Trevor about the conversation and on Sunday we got an email from Dorothy "Trevor suggests we meet at Braaid on the roadside next to the path to see the Stone Circle.     Then Trevor has a plan, but only he knows."   There is another site in the area that we hadn't visited called St Patrick's Chair so I looked at the map and tried to guess what Trevor had in mind - and if he was devising a route which incorporated both sites. 

 

We met at the small parking area at the entrance to Chibbanagh Plantation which overlooks the shallow central valley which bisects the Island between Douglas and Peel.  Years ago I saw a reference to the Plains of Heaven on the Island and when I enquired I was told that it was this area of the valley.   While we were waiting for the others I took this photo of Tim admiring the heavenly view.

Before the walk I did a bit of internet surfing to try to find out the origin of the name of the Plains of Heaven.  I discovered that it is taken from the title of a painting by John Martin, an eighteenth century English artist, who spent some time here and died on the Island in 1853.   He borrowed his title from a line from Milton's Paradise Lost about God and Satan being " . . . in dubious battle on the plains of Heaven".  The painting was supposed to be based on a sketch which he made while he was staying on the Island but doesn't seem to be remotely like the area which shares its name.

 

The Plains of Heaven - there is a higher resolution photo at  http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T01/T01928_10.jpg

It might be easier to pick out similarities if we viewed the valley from a different angle.   Egbert Rydings who visited the Island on a trout fishing holiday in 1895 described the scene in his Manx Tales . . . "  To the right were the rough, rocky hills of Greba and South Barrule, and the hills above Foxdale; and, in the centre of this hill-surrounded land, lay a charming cup-like valley, dotted here and there with farmsteads, standing amongst clumps of trees. But, I will not attempt to describe this glorious panorama of hill and vale that lay before me, for it would require the pen of a Ruskin to do full justice to it. This, I believe, is about the spot where Martin, the great landscape painter, is said to have stood when he took his sketch for his " Plains of Heaven;" so that, if any one has seen that great picture, or the print from it - which, I remember, was in Agnew's shop window in Manchester - he will have a far better idea of the scene that lay before me than any poor words of mine can convey."

 

Martin's style of painting was highly romanticised, very popular with the public but derided by the critics and by Ruskin who said that his art was . . . ‘merely a common manufacture, as much makeable to order as a tea-tray or a coal-scuttle’    Most of Martin's work appears to have a biblical or apocalyptic theme but I found this photo of a picture just titled "The Isle of Man" which is in the Ashmolean.  I suspect that it might show the Sulby River flowing into Ramsey bay with the clay cliffs to the north.  But it is not geographically accurate and the mountains are purely a figment of Martin's vivid imagination. 

 

A last word about Martin.  The poor man was given the undeserved the nickname of "mad Martin" possibly because some people confused him with his brother, Jonathan, who set York Minster alight in 1829 and died in Bedlam ten years later.

 

Back in the present, we walked along the busy road until we reached a gate and a path leading down to the stones . . . the remains of a mysterious round house and two rectangular buildings. 

The round house is Celtic.  The mystery is whether it was originally an even older stone circle and whether the large upright stones were incorporated into the walls of the Celtic building.   

 

 

The two rectangular buildings (behind the circle in the next photo) are the remains of a later Viking period homestead and cow byre.  The homestead is to the right.  There are more details at this site http://www.iomguide.com/braaid.php

We returned to the busy Foxdale to Cooil Road and walked a short distance towards Douglas before turning down a stony track.  Trevor wanted to look for a chapel which was shown on his map in a field below the track.  There were one or two butterflies but nothing to compare with last week.  I think the slight autumnal chill in the air and the fresh breeze weren't to their liking.  The weather didn't put off the swallows though.  They were swooping overhead - much to fast to capture in a photo.  But we came across a far more obliging little bird - a wheatear.  It fluttered along ahead of us - stopping frequently to perch on the stone wall and pose for photographs.  It was dressed in non-breeding plumage and, like the swallows, was probably thinking ahead to its long migratory journey in search of warmer winter weather.

There had been no sign of the chapel and we wondered whether it was hidden behind the trees on the far side of this field of inquisitive cattle.  When we got home I looked at the ordnance survey map and found that the site marked as a "chapel" on Trevor's map was referred to as a "keeill".  This explained why it was impossible to see from the track.  We had been looking for a building but the keeills are from a much earlier period - and only the imprint of the foundations remain.

The track passed Ballacotch Manor and ended on the road from Glen Vine up to the Braaid.  After a quick discussion we decided to walk down as far as Ellerslie Lane and then turn up the lane until we reached Old Church Road.  Near the junction with Ellerslie Lane we passed this old mill which had been renovated and turned into a large home.  This is a fate shared by many of the old mills and superfluous chapels and railway stations on the Island.

At the junction of Ellerslie Lane and Old Church Road is Ellerslie Farm.  I was interested in the circular building and wondered whether it was an early version of a grain silo.  Trevor thought it might be a windmill.  Now it is a popular perch for the starlings and jackdaws.   

 

Judging by the massive stone farm buildings this must have been one of the most important farms in the area for many years.  I couldn't find any information about the buildings - but I did discover that the farmer is responsible for producing the cold-pressed extra virgin rapeseed oil which I had seen on sale in the supermarket.  I must get a bottle on my next shopping trip.  There is an article about the farm at this site  http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/business/business-news/oiling-wheels-of-manx-arable-farming/34001.article

Old Church Road changes its character after it reaches the church.  The section from Crosby to the church is steep and sunny but the section we walked through on Monday runs through a shady green tunnel of overhanging branches.

 

We turned off onto a short footpath which led to St Patrick's Chair.  According to An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Isle of Man "It is a typical leacht of the Irish type.  The stone setting usually marks a shrine at the burial place of an early Christian saint and no doubt became a preaching place and penitential station.  Popular tradition states that it was from this spot that St. Patrick preached and consequently any person who sits in the 'chair' and rests his back against the incised Cross will never feel fatigue."  This is a nice idea for a weary hiker but the barbed wire which encloses the stones, and the nettles growing around them, deterred us from experimenting.

 

We still had a long way to go.  Our cars were parked at the edge of the plantation on top of the hill on the right hand side of the photo.

Back on the road I stopped to take a photo of this purple loosestrife - an attractive wild flower here, but an invasive alien in other countries . . .

. . . and Tim took this photo as we approached the junction with the Foxdale Road at the top of the hill. 

 

We braved the traffic for a while and then turned off onto the scenic route - a quieter road which turned off to the right and led downhill to a group of houses and then crossed the St Mark's Road and climbed up a long hill to the gate on the south side of the Chibbanagh Plantation.  As we approached the St. Mark's road, I felt a drop of rain and just had time to put my camera into a plastic bag before we were caught in a heavy shower.

 

Eventually the shower passed and I took this photo in the plantation of the first good patch of heather that I have seen this summer.

The various tracks through the plantation were confusing but fortunately Trevor had been there before and managed to find the way back to the cars.