From Peel the coast-line may be followed the whole distance to the
mouth of Glen Maye; but the path, so far as it exists, is in places
rather giddy, and approaches unpleasantly near to the edge of the
cliff. We believe that it is examined every year before the beginning
of the "season" to make sure that it has not slipped away in the winter
months into the gulf below. All inland view is at first shut out by
the huge green slopes of Peel Hill on our left; but presently, as we
double Contrary Head, the fine southern range of mountain comprising
Cronk-ny-Irey-Lhaa (1,449 feet), the Carnanes (1,000 feet), and Bradda
Head (768 feet), is seen dropping to the sea, more directly and more
abruptly than perhaps any other hills to the south of the Border (in
Scotland it is matched on the southern coast of Mull), except perhaps
Penmaenmawr and the north coast of Exmoor. The view hence, looking
south, is impressive, or even deserves the epithet "grand"; at no
other spot in the island do mountain and sea group in a single picture
in such intimate proximity as here. At Glen Maye the line of cliff
is abruptly interrupted by the little stream that here descends from
Glen Rushen. The best of this glen is probably where it debouches on
the sea; higher up, however, it becomes wooded, and exhibits a small
waterfall, but is apt, perhaps, in "tripper-time" to be somewhat
unpleasantly popular. At the head of the glen we regain the main road,
by which we might have travelled, had we liked, directly from Peel.
Passing the hamlet of Dalby, and always looking down on the sea on our
right, we come shortly to a fork half a mile beyond the church, where a
lane drops down due south (the right-hand branch of the fork) into the
hollow of Dalby Lhag. At the bottom of this is a tiny rill pleasantly
hidden among trees. We are now virtually at sea-level, but in the
course of the next mile we rise nearly 800 feet. The ascent is by a
kind of rocky staircase, in which the bare ribs of the earth have been
stripped of their scanty covering of soil. At the top of this, where
we join a better lane that comes over Cronk Fedjag, we strike away to
the right, over high grass pastures, to the fairly obvious summit of
Cronk-ny-Irey-Lhaa: the lane goes down to Port St. Mary (with a turn
to the right for Port Erin), keeping the range of mountain between
the sea and itself. On Cronk-ny-Irey-Lhaa and the neighbouring ridge
of the Carnanes--the two are only severed by the sudden notch of the
Slack--those who are free to wander may well wander a summer day, or
bask a whole morning in the sunlight, stretched out on the scented turf,
While the dreaming man,
Half conscious of the soothing melody,
With sidelong eye looks out upon the scene.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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