Cornaa

Last walk of autumn

Wednesday 28th November, 2013

There are only a few leaves left on the trees now but it is too warm to be real winter weather.  The maximums are still hovering around the double figure mark.

This walk was scheduled for Wednesday because we had a tree surgeon working on our beeches down by the road on Monday and Tuesday.  The walk had to be a short one because Tim had an appointment early in the afternoon so Dorothy suggested “Shall we meet at Ballaglass for a walk to Cornaa?”  The only drawback to this walk is that we have done it so often that the photos must be getting rather repetitious.

Danny was sleeping when we left and I was a bit worried that he might be anxious when he woke and found that he was alone in the house.

 We got to Ballaglass early and I took a few photos of the bridge over the stream between the parking area and Ballaglass Glen.  The bridge appeared to be stronger than necessary but I realised that it is the only road access to the Glen and they must need to take heavy vehicles across to work on fallen trees.

If this hike had a theme it would be hard to choose between fallen leaves, water and rocks.  We started off through the trees towards the main stream which runs down the middle of the glen.  On the way we passed a pile of old logs with an interesting crop of bracket fungus which was being inspected by a hungry slug.

Nearby there was a huge fallen tree.  Tim and I tried to identify it.  Judging by the bark we could eliminate everything except elm and oak.  Most of the saplings in the area were elm, so I would guess that it was the parent tree and is also an elm.

By the time we had finished our investigation, the others had disappeared.  We weren’t sure which path they had taken but we managed to find them down by the river.  I took this photo of the little white water rapids.

Further upstream we crossed a footbridge.  There was a small weir near the bridge and the water above the weir was still enough to reflect slightly distorted images of the bare branches overhead.

We walked along the footpath above the glen until we reached the steep road which climbs over a high ridge, between the Cornaa River valley and the next valley (with an unnamed tributary) to the south of the Ards.  We didn’t stop at Cashtyl yn Ard because we photographed the burial site about two months ago.  We just continued down the road to the footbridge by the ford and then turned down the road to the shore.  The tide was out but not quite as far out as it was last time we stopped here.  I took a photo of the valley with the mist on the hills and mallard swimming in the tranquil river.

Then I took this photo of Tim.

He had walked down to the edge of the sea to see whether he could spy any caves.  Nothing was visible from the shore apart from sea, rocks and a vast expanse of shingle.  But he took a photo of the south side of the little bay from a different perspective.

I wasted a bit of time photographing pebbles.  I must go to the Visitor Centre at the Ayres to see whether they still have a display of pebbles.  They used to have an interesting exhibit showing some of the different pebbles and giving the names of the rock that they came from and also the areas where the rocks are found.  For example there are some pebbles on the north west coast which are formed from a type of riebeckite which is found on Ailsa Craig.  Many of our pebbles come from the north and were pushed south by the encroaching ice during the last ice age.

This is not the best time of year for photographing flowers but there seems to be an exception to every rule.  For some unknown reason, ivy flowers in late autumn and the berries ripen in spring.  I was confused by ivy when we came to the island.  I recognised the ivy-shaped leaves of the climbing stems with their little suckers for clinging to trees and walls but I didn’t realise that the mature, woody, flowering stems which have a different shaped leaf were part of the same plant.

We returned along the familiar path through the Barony where there were still a few autumn leaves on the young trees.

I stopped to take a photo of this rusty pole – which I wish I had photographed twenty years ago.  There used to be a sign on the post which read “Isle of Man Highways”.  I don’t know whether it fell off – or whether it was “liberated” as a souvenir – because it disappeared after a year or two.  It would have been fun to send the photo to friends as an illustration of the high standard of “highways” on the Island.

The last bit of our short walk was through the lower section of Ballaglass Glen.  Tim took this photo of the river.

And then I took this photo of the photographers taking a few last pictures just before we got back to the cars.

I needn’t have worried about Danny.  He was still fast asleep when we got home.  I don’t think he even knew that we had been out.  But he soon woke up and demanded his walk.