Isle of Man Walks
Snaefell
Date: 8th October 2011
Distance: 2.0 miles
Ascent: 397 feet
Time: 1 hour 05 mins
With: On my own
Start Grid Ref: SC396868
Walk Summary:
This very short climb to the top of Snaefell from the Bungalow Station was the final part of a trilogy of peak bagging walks I did on the same day.
Route Summary: Bungalow Station - Snaefell - Bungalow Station
Pictures:
1. Snaefell
2. Clagh Ouyr
3. Looking across Sulby Reservoir to Slieau Freoaghane
4. On the top of Snaefell
5. A golden plover on Snaefell
6. North Barrule
7. The large mast on the top of Snaefell
8. The trig point and the view down the eastern side of the island
9. Laxey Glen
10. Beinn-y-Phott
Walk Detail: Following earlier walks on to Slieau Freoaghane, and then Carraghan & Beinn-y-Phott, this was the last of three short walks I did on the same day as I tried to bag as many tops as I could during my stay on the island.
This had to be just about the simplest route possible, following the path from the Bungalow Station, the only stop on the Laxey - Snaefell train line, to the summit and then back again on the same route. The highlight of the climb was the almost full length view of Laxey Glen.
Having had a covering of cloud all day it lifted from the top of Snaefell literally minutes before I got there so I couldn’t really have timed it any better. The top proved to be fairly unique with its mixture of masts, buildings, train lines and the ubiquitous trig point.
The view though was the main thing and it didn’t disappoint. Perhaps the most striking object was North Barrule and the Clagh Ouyr ridge we had traversed in poor weather a few days before. The only thing missing from the view was the long distance views of Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Lake District. I only met two other people on the summit and strangely enough they had the same camera model as me.
Ideally I would have climbed Snaefell as part of a longer walk but we'd had a couple of days of fairly bad weather and with the forecast for the rest of the week not looking too good I'd made the decision to do as much as I could in one day. I was a fairly unique experience for me and I quite enjoyed it. Having said that if I had more time to explore the Isle of Man at my leisure I would almost certainly want to climb Snaefell from Laxey.
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