Supporting Manx Agriculture and an Historic Ramble

I had an indolent day yesterday and getting bored with Facebook just recycled a couple of CDN items and then headed for the hills. In this case the Bride Hills. I was going to toss a coin and decide North or South but by the time I was in the car it was North without prevarication.

I say indolent but I was a man with a mission. Heeding Agriculture Minister Geoff Boots warning about the plight of farmers I headed first for the excellent ‘Farm Shop’ on the Sulby St Judes road and as luck would have it new stock was going on the shelves at the roadside pull in. I can recommend it and swiftly stocked up on a variety of eggs, veg etc for me and one of the offspring. As you travel around you can see that farmers are busy trying to harvest what remains of crops after this protracted drought. With some relief rain wise this weekend maybe the dry spell will end but it's too late now according to the papers and the damage may last years.

I’ve been a member of Mec Vannin for years and a cornerstone of party policy is support for Manx Agriculture and Fishing and in an uncertain world we should always ensure we have a strong domestic agriculture base.

Heady matters aside I push on into the ‘Northland’ momentarily toying with the idea of taking a walk into Ballachurry Fort the impressive earthwork from the Illiam Dhone English Civil War period. I have to confess that although I knew about Ballachurry it was my late wife who eventually dragged me into to see it (she generally put me straight on a lot of things) and despite the fact it's an earth work you can see the extent of it - a pretty massive bit of work for the times I would imagine.

Further on taking a left off the ‘Burma Road’ its again steeped in history this time of later wars and ‘Thurot’ - although its something of a misnomer as Thurot after the famous French- English naval battle off Bride was chucked overboard and washed up in SW Scotland (I think)!

After suitably fortified by some soup at the Cafe in Bride (I hope they were Manx carrots) I head into Ramsey passing the remnants of another war (the Cold One) the ROC bunker on the coast just North of what was the Grand Island. As an old Observer myself I still have a pair of binoculars by my side but despite a quick visit earlier on the road into Bride and stroll around Ballaghennie no rare ornithological sightings for me. I found my old ROC Intermediate cert pass from 1963/64 the other day with the words ‘congrats’ written on it must have been the first and last time any one ever said a food word for me - these days people tend to shout abuse over the Internet. Still the tattered document shows we were trained to confront the Russian menace!!!

Ramsey with the good weather seems busy enough maybe I was to harsh about the paving and its actually working. I must be mellowing obviously it is down to the good weather.

Although the radio is raving about people ‘raving’ about Lezayre Road I’m in such a good mood I’m not going to compound Ray Harmer’s ( I like Ray he’s always smiling in the pics) ire by gloating over his cycle track or whatever so head back via the St Judes/Sandygate/Ballamoar route. More farmers working away. I hope Boot and DEFA do a job of supporting them come Brexit I have a notion we will need a domestic agriculture scene - vitally.

On the Michael - Peel coast road no sign of the Mournes although the weather's good so I pause to scan the horizon line with the binocs but ‘nothing’ Manannan is obviously in a huff because of what I wrote about him the other day.

Footnote: There is an excellent Culture Vannin video by Charles Guard on Ballachurry at their site - I recommend it plus of course a field visit!

Image: Ballachurry Fort (aka Kerroogarroo Earthworks) - The Charles Guard video says ‘the real deal’ planned was possibly to have been very much larger.

Bernard Moffatt