Peel Castle and Corrins Hill Monument (148m - about 500 ft) - coastal and clifftop walk
The small town of Peel, with its harbour and ruined castle, is on the west coast of the island. There are several long hiking trails inland, including the Heritage Trail which connects Peel with Douglas along a valley and also runs around the entire coastline.
Peel was the first place we visited, on a cool, cloudy and windy morning. We parked beside the Castle, and after walking round the harbour wall and visiting the lifeboat station we went into a tea-room for some lunch and to warm up. The cakes were especially good! We were keen to find some sort of easy walking route, and checked the map. There were lots of routes to choose from, but the most straightforward short walk seemed to be the one up to Corrins Hill overlooking the town on the west. Three of the party decided to stay in the town to visit the shops, whilst the rest of us went hiking.
We walked across to the Castle again, from where a trail led up the grassy ridge towards Corrins Hill. It was a steady climb but quite easy. After going over the first top, another trail led off to the right towards the cliffs. This looked like an interesting route, and we followed it along the clifftops. The path was wide enough to be safe, although there were some steep drops down to the right which we had to be aware of.
I noticed lots of different wildflowers along the way, and started taking a few photos of them. Back on the mainland there seems to be less variety and profusion of wildflowers than there used to be.
We began to wonder how long we would be walking along the cliff path before we needed to turn back, and I checked the map. It should be a couple of kilometres, just over a mile, before the trail turned inland, but it felt longer than that. However, sure enough, the route began to climb and go round to the left, bordered by heather and bracken. We reached a junction next to a wall, with one trail leading to the right, back towards the cliffs - this must be the heritage trail continuing down towards Port Erin. The clouds were breaking up, and we could see the sun shining on the hills in the distance to the south-west.
Our route continued to turn to the left, taking us back up towards the monument on the top of Corrins Hill. It was a good final climb, but not too far, and by the time we reached the tower the sunshine had caught up with us. The views over the rolling countryside were great - it looked very peaceful and relaxing. After taking it in, we continued down the ridge, back towards the Castle. There was a trail heading off down the right flank, and this was like a terrace with views of the town and harbour, now lit up by the sun.
We had just enough time to get back down for our rendezvous with the rest of the party, back at the Castle. It had been a very pleasant short introduction to walking in the Isle of Man.
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