Isle of Man Coastal Path. Aileen Evans
difficult to know where cultivation ends and nature takes over. The lanes encountered are often between high stone and sod walls. Overgrown, the stones are often hidden by a cascade of flowers best seen in the spring – bluebells, celandine, primroses, yellow poppies and violets intermingled with buds of ramsons, red campion, and greater stitchwort, with the wild rose and sweet briar patiently waiting for the summer. Where the stone is on view, ground ivy, stonecrop and pennywort do their best to clothe it, with the rue-leaved saxifrage and herb Robert adding their own distinctive colours.
Orchid on Spanish Head
The limestone of Scarlett Point has its own nature trail and visitor centre, where a small yet comprehensive booklet is available. Flowers of the limestone and those loving the proximity of the sea abound. Sea thrift, white sea campion, buttercup and bird’s-foot trefoil cannot be missed, but just beyond the coastguard station, the minute mauve and white flowers of the sand spurrey and the purple thyme can be easily overlooked. The spring squill abounds among the short turf, and on the basalt dykes lichens can be examined.
The lichen is a dual plant – a fungus, determining the shape, living with an alga, its chlorophyll making the food. The two varieties on the basalt are as different as chalk and cheese. Romalina Siliquosa is the tall grey spiky one; Lecanora Atra is the flat, frill-like orange one. These are only two of the many varieties on the island.
The sand and gravels of the north are still mobile and settling according to the whim of the weather. This is an area of unique scientific interest, and as you would expect its welfare is guarded by the Ayres Nature Reserve. Marram grass is the first plant to stabilize the sand, with its network of strong roots forming a rampart along the dunes. Behind its protection, sea holly, pink-flowered sea bindweed and the green-flowered sea spurge are found. A little further inland where there is a sandy soil, hawkweeds, brambles and restharrow grow.
Where the sand is captured in the fixed dunes, burnet rose, orchids, ferns and lichens thrive, together with the Manx cabbage. The Manx cabbage, Brassica Monensis, was first discovered in 1662 by the botanist John Ray. It has a tall stem topped by a crown of yellow flowers, which turn to spreading seed pods as the summer progresses. Rare flowers flourish among the sand dunes, uncommon orchids, lichens and ferns. Do not disturb them or gather their seeds. Some orchids do not produce seeds until about 14 years old. How tragic to trample on one that was 13½!
Sea holly at Rue Point
For a while the footpath uses an old railway trackbed, now colonized by flowers – lady’s smock, red campion and various grasses. Many butterflies visit the area, the meadow brown, wall brown and orange tip. The bird’s-foot trefoil is host to the common blue; the small copper likes to stay with the dock or sorrel; while the tall stinging nettles attract the peacock, tortoiseshell and red admiral. Other butterflies such as the large, small and grey-veined whites have moved in, so you are likely to see many caterpillars about. As you pass take care not to tread on them.
Birds
The island has its share of resident birds, but its position, roughly in the centre of the Irish Sea, also makes it an important staging post for many migrants. Binoculars are rewarding, and the footpaths give a grandstand view. An excellent comprehensive book, Birds of the Isle of Man, by JP Cullen & PP Jennings and beautifully illustrated by Alan Harris, will tell you every detail of the Manx birdlife. However, the following short summary may also be useful.
In the woodlands and glens the bigger birds, rooks, tree-nesting ravens and sparrowhawks, are easy to spot if they are about. The conifer plantations through which the Millennium Way and Bayr ny Skeddan pass have a population of tits, goldcrest, woodcock and the long-eared owl. I spent time by a plantation expecting to see these birds. I heard them, they were in good voice at about four o’clock in the morning, yet I saw only a black-headed gull and an owl.
Seagull
On the upland moors and slopes of the mountains the curlew, snipe, skylark and meadow pipit try to steal the show, the red grouse and wheatear being less bold. I didn’t see the hen harrier or the hooded crow, but a kestrel was having a dispute with a few herring gulls.
The thick stone and turf walls of the farmland, often crowned with gorse, ash or hawthorn, provide secret nesting sites for the robin, wren, pied wagtail, whitethroat and yellow hammer. As you walk through the fields in winter the visitors include fieldfare and redwing. In summer lapwing, golden plover and grey partridge are about. I got a nasty shock when a pheasant rose up under my nose with a frantic cry. These birds are very well camouflaged, as are the nests of ground-nesting birds, and appeals for care are often sited on the footpaths.
The Manx rivers are bright, busy streams, with grey wagtail, moorhens and mallard. Sad to tell, the dipper population has declined due to the pollution of some rivers by mining, but the good news is that the fish are returning, so perhaps the dippers will follow.
The coast provides two very different kinds of habitat. Where there are high cliffs the rocky ledges are occupied by colonies of seabirds. The dominant seabird is the herring gull, as the footpath waymark verifies, but there are other gulls and auks. Fulmar, kittiwake, guillemot, cormorant and shag all have their favourite ledges. Razorbill and puffin like to be close to the water, but the black-headed gull turns up everywhere.
The strip of land between the field edge and the cliff not only holds the footpath but is the territory of dunnock, robin, wren and stonechat. I had never seen the stonechat before I camped on Raad ny Foillan. I heard a call, ‘Tea, Jack, Jack’, and on a gorse bush not a metre away was this lovely little bird. It has a black head, a white collar and a chestnut breast.
The sandy heaths of the Ayres are the nesting place of the little tern, the common tern, oystercatcher, ringed plover and curlew.
The greatest gathering of birds is on the intertidal mud flats, where each tide invites the waders to a banquet – oystercatchers, curlew, lapwing, golden plover, ringed plover, dunlin, sanderling, redshank – and the choughs, ducks and gulls join in too. Summer visitors can be seen resting and feeding. Sandwich terns, the red-breasted merganser and the Arctic skua have been recorded breeding on the island recently.
As you enjoy watching the birds, just appreciate that it is their habitat we are visiting and it has been our pleasure.
Grey Atlantic seal
Mammals
The Isle of Man has few native wild mammals, yet they well represent the different habitats to be found on or around the island.
Common and grey seals frequent the rocky inlets of the coast. The grey seal is often to be seen basking on the rocks. It is an inquisitive creature and is likely to follow you along the coast. I have been under its scrutiny many times as I walked Raad ny Foillan. Basking sharks, huge but gentle, plankton-eating creatures, often play in the clear waters off Port Erin and the surrounding coast.
The pygmy shrew frequents the fields and hedgerows. Its Manx name, Thollog Faiyr, literally translated means ‘the grass louse’. The stoat is common both in number and legend. If anyone kills a stoat it is said that revenge will soon follow.
There are three kinds of bat native to the island – the long eared, the natterers and the pipistrelle.
On the moors and mountains brown and mountain hares are often seen. The Manx name for the hare is mwaagh.
The largest native wild mammal was the Irish ‘elk’, a giant deer now extinct. It was a formidable creature standing 6 feet high with a 12-foot span of antlers. Skeletons of the elk found on the island are on exhibition in the Manx and Leeds museums. It is said that the animal’s ghost can still be seen roaming the eastern glens.
The other animals