Snaefell

Sunday 20th April 2025

For my Easter holiday this year I decided to come to an island that I have long harboured a desire to visit: the Isle of Man. I have planned to go there on several occasions over the years, most recently in 2019, but now I had finally got myself organised. I caught a train to Liverpool and then a ferry across the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man, though the weather when I arrived was not great and it was already two o’clock in the afternoon, so there was not enough time for me to do any walking and instead I just wandered around the capital city, Douglas, and followed part of the local heritage and nature walk called the Douglas Trail. The highlight was visiting Summerhill Glen, which was filled with tiny, magical fairies, or at least the doors to their houses, and reminded me that the Isle of Man has many narrow, wooded glens which are just the sorts of places that I wanted to visit while I was there. But my first goal was Snaefell, the highest point on the island and the only point that is more than two thousand feet above sea level, and so the only mountain. Thankfully the next day was sunny so I set off on one of the astonishing Victorian railways on the island, the Manx Electric Railway, a tramway that hasn’t changed in over a hundred years, even down to still using the same trams. This took me to Laxey where one of the paths up Snaefell starts, however, there is also an ancient mountain railway that takes tourists up to the summit and I couldn’t resist hopping on hoard for a ride. 

This took me all the way up to the bitterly cold, windswept summit of Snaefell where cloud was obscuring the view so I immediately got back on the tram and came straight back down again. Now I finally decided to stop being a tourist and do some walking, so I headed out of the village along a road that steadily climbs Laxey Glen, passing the iconic Laxey Wheel, the largest working waterwheel in the world, and on through the hamlet of Agneash into the quiet valley on a rough track. With the sun shining, a pleasant walk took me slowly up the valley while the trams continued to trundle up the other side until I reached some mine ruins where I left the track to follow a faint, often boggy path across the side of the hill. Although this was quite tiring, the sun was out and I relished the feeling of climbing a proper mountain path towards my first mountain of the year, unfortunately civilisation soon rudely interrupted me with the mountain road that is part of the famous TT motorcycle race. On the other side the mountain path climbed straight towards the summit of Snaefell, though on the steepest section I thought I could see faint, well-graded zigzags in the grass, while the beaten track ascends steeply up. I tried to keep to these easier routes, but they were hard to follow and eventually I just ploughed on up to the summit station and café.

It was still very cold and windy at the top but the mist had cleared so I had extensive views around the northern half of the island, though the crowds prompted me to not linger and I soon made my way north past one of the two masts that blight the summit and, after crossing the railway tracks, descended a faint path with views ahead of me towards a range of hills that terminate on North Barrule, the second highest hill on the Isle of Man. If I was so inclined I could have set myself the goal of visiting the summits of all the hills on the island more than one thousand feet high and I would have started by taking my descent along the ridge between Clagh Ouyr and North Barrule before descending into Ramsey. Instead I was following a route on visitisleofman.com (and the OS Maps app) called Route 1 - East Summits, which turns away from these hills to head east towards the coast. Steady progress on variable paths took me into the strong easterly winds around the side of the Verandah and, ignoring the proscribed route, I kept to the path that crosses the southern slopes of Slieau Lhean. Once sheltered from the cold winds, and with great views out to sea, I had an enjoyable walk slowly making my way down the track and finally returning to the village of Laxey where I took advantage of time to descend to the coast at Old Laxey where I turned right to follow the Laxey River back up to the railway station. This was a fabulous walk, despite cold winds at the top, as it felt wonderful to be climbing a mountain again and under no compulsion to push myself, it was gloriously relaxing.

The Malvern Hills

Saturday 8th March 2025

I have desired to walk over the Malvern Hills for a long time, and I didn’t realise how long that had been until just before this walk when I was looking through some old files and I found some pages I had downloaded from the walkingbritain.co.uk website of various walks over the Malvern Hills in 2001. A forecast of sunshine and unseasonably warm weather in March prompted me to take the opportunity and catch a train to Malvern getting off at the Malvern Link station where I walked along the road towards the impressive line of hills ahead of me. My starting point was at a car park on the North Malvern Road, which rises over the northern shoulder of the hills, and where I started to follow a walk from the BBC Countryfile Magazine called Malvern Hills ridge walk. A clear stony path led me up the hill, zigzagging several times and soon provided me with extensive views across the Worcestershire plain, though the distant views were very hazy. A maze of paths provided me with many options for ascending the hill and I soon lost the prescribed route, but I wasn’t too bothered by this as I made my way around the northern slopes while admiring the awesome views.

After gazing at the views over End Hill I finally turned my attention to North Hill which I had been circumnavigating to slowly climb onto the windswept summit where the hazy views were on display in all directions including south along the ridge towards Worcestershire Beacon, the highest point in the Malvern Hills. I enjoyed this climb and relished the opportunity to stretch my legs over the many tops along the ridge so I was disappointed to discover that the prescribed route avoids all of the tops between North Hill and Worcestershire Beacon and decided that I would ignore the route and bag each and every peak I found, keeping to the top of the ridge the whole way. My first target was Table Hill which lies to the west of North Hill and after that I proceeded along the ridgeline of Sugarloaf Hill before finally climbing steeply up to the crowded top of Worcestershire Beacon.

I didn’t linger, but maintained a brisk pace along the top of the ridge with awesome views ahead of me along the range of hills until eventually I reached Wyche Gap, a pass through the Malvern Hills, where I stopped for my lunch while gazing west into Herefordshire. My onward route carried me up over Perseverance Hill and Jubilee Hill before I finally reached Pinnacle Hill where the Countryfile Magazine ridge walk turns back, but I was having too much fun to stop now so I kept going over Black Hill, gradually descending to eventually reach Wynds Point where another road crosses the mostly impenetrable line of hills. Before me now was the steep slope of Herefordshire Beacon, also known as British Camp after the vast Iron Age hill fort at the top and an exhilarating climb took me all the way up to the windswept summit, but I didn’t stop there as I continued south over Millennium Hill before finally dropping off the eastern slopes. The Malvern Hills technically don’t end at this point but on Chase End Hill several miles away, but the continuing hills are less than a thousand feet high and I needed to get back so I turned left onto a bridleway that crosses the eastern slopes and soon brought me back to Wynds Point where I wearily climbed the ridge again.

I had hoped to avoid any more climbing, but that was frustratingly not possible, though I did take advantage of several paths that bypassed some of the peaks until after bypassing Black Hill I crossed the ridge and joined a bridleway that traverses the eastern slopes of the hill before turning north to head back to the start along the originally proscribed route. This took me into woodland for an extended walk that often seemed to be climbing back up the side of the hill when all I wanted was a flat traverse, but instead the path kept undulating up and down, through the woodland below Perseverance Hill. At Wyche Gap a stretch of road walking followed before the path continued through woodland weaving exhaustingly up and down the slopes of Worcestershire Beacon, past St Ann’s Well and around the slopes of North Hill. Eventually I came off the return route of the Countryfile Magazine’s ridge walk to descend onto a road that took me back to the railway station through Link Common where a seasonally early appearance of celandines provided me with a pleasant end to the walk. This was a strenuous walk, which was precisely what I wanted to enjoy the sunshine and remove my winter laziness in preparation for the coming year. It is tragic that it has taken me so long to come to the Malvern Hills as it is a fabulous place to walk. I loved every moment and with what seems like a maze of paths at the northern end of the range I hope it won’t be too long before I return and further explore this awesome place.