Twenty Five Years
of Island Images - September 2000 - 2024
    
    
    
    
    
|
3/9/25
A bit of a break in
the poor weather we've had around the end of August and into September,
which yesterday afternoon allowed some drone flying. It's generally
been very windy, although as I type this it is almost calm outside, but
now with heavy rain! My chosen location was around the village of
Foxdale, although it clouded over almost as soon as I started the flight
and blue skies to the north tempted me away to a totally different part
of the island.
DJI Air 2S 2/9/25
    
  
4/9/25
After completing my
flight near Foxdale, I drove north towards the clearer skies, thinking
of stopping at either The Lhen or The Ayres. However, approaching
Jurby I noticed that the scaffolding that had been surrounding the tower
for a while was now gone, so decided to stop there for some aerial pictures.
The present church is probably the third Christian building on the site
and dates from between 1813 to 1829 but replaced a earlier building
just to the north, which in turn was probably built on an ancient keeil
site. Within the churchyard is what is believed to be a Viking era
burial mound, but with later Christian graves just dug on top of it.
I've mentioned some of the former military sites here in the individual
picture texts, if you want some more information look in the 1940s section
of my Air Traffic
Control History pages.
DJI Air 2S 2/9/25
    
    
    
 
5/9/25
On Wednesday morning
the weather was dreadful over the island, with low cloud and heavy rain,
and I felt sorry for our visitors from the giant cruise ship Niew Statendam
which was at anchor in the Douglas Bay. However, after lunchtime
a lot of the cloud cleared away and we had a trip down to the beach for
some shots of ship and town.
DJI Mini 4 Pro 3/9/25
    
    
  
6/9/25
Another 'not quite as
planned' aerial photo session on Thursday afternoon. When I set out
from home my plan was to drive to the Dalby road and park up to walk down
to Eary Cushlin and then on to the isolated Lag ny Keeiley keeil site on
the lower slopes of Cronk ny Arrey Laa. As I got nearer though, I
saw that there was a lot of cloud being formed around the hill and drifting
down to quite low levels, so I had a quick change of plan and continued
to Fleshwick Bay, which was bathed in sunshine.
Fleshwick has an interesting
past, at one time it was quite a little tourist centre, with two cafes.
One was right down on the beach and had rowing boats for hire and the other
one was at the top of the short hill up from the beach and had tennis courts
behind it. There's no trace of the beach one now, but the one up
the hill, which was a ruin last time I was there is now being restored.
It had a lovely mural painted on an inside wall and I have a set of ground
level pictures taken in 2018 on
the website here.
DJI Mini 4 Pro 4/9/25
    
    
 
7/9/25
On Friday we had a train
trip from Douglas to Port Erin for lunch, heading out on the 11:50 train
from Douglas and returning on the 16:00 from Port Erin. After arriving
at Port Erin we had lunch at the Station Hotel, lovely staff and tasty
food, followed by a stroll around the village with coffee at the Whistlestop
Cafe before the return trip.
Panasonic TZ95 &
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra 5/9/25
Douglas to Port Erin
     
     
Port Erin
After an excellent lunch
at the Station Hotel, we headed up to the Rushen
Heritage Trust to view an exhibition of local area mining and quarrying,
for which I'd provided quite a few pictures, then strolled around the town
until it was time to head back to the station for coffee and cake before
boarding the train back to Douglas.
    
    
The Railway Museum and
trip back to Douglas.
    
    
8/9/25
On Saturday afternoon
we had a trip up to the north of the island to visit the Lighthouse, Gorsebank
and Bride Railway, which we had seen in passing many times, but this was
the first time we had made it to one of their weekly (seasonal) open days.
The railway is a 'G' scale garden railway, running right around the owners'
bungalow. Running stock is by the German company LGB, so based on
that country's narrow gauge railways. The railway is complex with several
stations and once set up is computer controlled and can run up to eight
trains simulaneously, although I think that six were running when we were
there. The have a stud of 17 locomotives to choose from! The railway
is normally open for public viewing on (dry) Saturdays from 12 noon until
4pm from the first Saturday in May until the last Saturday in September,
although I think that next Saturday, the 13th will be the last running
day for 2025. Entrance is free but donations to Rebecca House Children's
Hospice are welcome.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
6/9/25
    
    
9/9/25
After our visit to the
Lighthouse, Gorsebank and Bride Railway we made a stop on the way home,
for a fairly short walk in the Ballaugh Curragh. We were hoping to
see some of the area's supposedly prolific wild wallabies, but didn't see
a single one! The curragh is an internationally recognised Ramsar
site.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
6/9/25
    
    
    
10/9/25
There are two smaller
drinking water reservoirs not far from where I live. The Clypse is the
oldest, being constructed to supply drinking water to Douglas in 1876,
with Kerrowdhoo just downstream constructed in 1893. Earlier in the
year Manx Utilities discovered a fault in the valve equipment at The Clypse
which needed the reservoir drained to replace, which has been carried out
over the summer. There's very little water left in it now so I thought
that I would get some aerial pictures of it before the work is completed
and the reservoir allowed to fill again. There are bypass channels down
the side of both reservoirs which allow either to be drained as required.
If you want a comparison
with a full reservoir I shot a series of pictures here in January and you
can view them starting
here.
DJI Air 2S 8/9/25
    
   
  
12/9/25
Yesterday the forecast
indicated a particularly high tide just after lunchtime, with the risk
of overtopping, so I headed down to Douglas Harbour for some photography.
As it happened it wasn't quite a high as predicted and well below the harbourside
levels, but I shot these pictures of mainly ships and boats there.
Panasonic TZ95 11/9/25
    
    
After leaving Douglas
I headed south to Castletown and had a stroll around the harbour area and
the older part of the town.
    
    
    
13/9/25
After my visit to Castletown
on Thursday afternoon I had plenty of time to spare so decided to go home
via the 'scenic route' (but aren't they all in the IOM?), visiting Port
Erin and Fleshwick, then via The Sloc and Foxdale. A couple of pics
from Port Erin, then Fleshwick and one at Surby.
Panasonic TZ95
11/9/25
 
    
14/9/25
A few 'atmospheric'
shots taken from home over the last few days with some changeable weather
producing some nice scenes.
A passing thunderstorm
and sunset skies
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
12/9/25
  
On the following day,
a heavy rainshower passed over the island at around sunset.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
13/9/25
 
A handheld night shot
out of the window at 03:10
Insta360 Ace Pro 14/9/25
Well that's about it
for September. Manx Island Images is taking a few weeks off, see
you again in late October!
In the meantime, I've
uploaded the October section of the
'Twenty Five Years' pictures.
Not the Isle of Man
at all, but a re-worked stitched panorama of Playa Blanca, Lanzarote, shot
around a year ago.
|
