It might be fair to say that you cannot guarantee warm sunny days on the Isle of Man at this time of year. Indeed, you can’t guarantee warm, sunny weather at any time of year in the Isle of Man!
However, it is quite unusual to have whole days of absolutely teeming rain and even on the worst of them, you can still extract something despite a little dampness and a bit of a hooly.
Actually that’s what we had to do recently when our daughter and her family visited for half term. we picked the time when it was least likely to be most wet and headed off to Glen Helen, 9 miles along the TT course on the west of the Island.
The intention was to visit Spooyt Vane, arguably the biggest waterfall here, which is situated just beyond the glen on private land, so we set off inland, up river. And here’s the thing: Although it is a beatiful shady spot to visit in the summer, it’s just as beautiful but much more spectacular, especially after heavy rainfall in the winter and, as on many of our walks, you can see so much more without all the leaves on the trees.
The main path to the Rhenass fall (13 years, a tourist and 43 years living here and I have only discovered the name) is wide, with no major inclines or descents, so it is one of our more accessible glens and we had no trouble with the pram or any of our other two grandchildren, despite them starting to show the effects of a hard few days of holiday and there was certainly plenty of flow to the river, rapids and lots of contributary waterfalls.
What I had forgotten, is that there was no way that we could get the pram beyond the bridge, so Spooyt Vane will have to wait until their visit next year when the youngest is a little bit bigger.
There is also a little play park, near to the entrance of the glen which is always a great sweetener for the kids to have to do a walk!
The Swiss Chalet is being refurbished after a fire and the cafe by the yurts was closed but we could have gone to Tynwald Mills nearby and we ended up going to the Hawthorn which serves food all day but you can also pop in for a coffee or a drink.
A little while later and into November, following more rainfall, on one of our beautiful autumnal days, I took this photograph of another waterfall on the Calf of Man.
You don’t need to leave the Isle of Man until the summer because there’s no such thing as bad weather, only weather in all its differing forms. And even if, sometimes you don’t fancy going out in it, it doesn’t rain in the Welbeck Bar!
Book now to stay at the Welbeck!
