July 20th:
Today, I’ve officially achieved my objectives for this trip. I have all the already-existing audio documentation of classic Manx. I’ve tracked down every book ever made in or about Manx and put it in a box, now en route to the Harvard-Westlake library. I’ve made my own recordings of modern Manx. I’ve talked to every Manx speaker I could find about the language’s history and their own, and how the two intersect. And I’ve learned enough Manx to keep up a conversation. And, as an added bonus, I got a recording of the Manx English accent and submitted it to the World Speech Archive.
So, the only thing left to do is explore. As long as I find myself on this Island, I’m going to make it a point to explore every inch of it.
Where to start?
Saturday:
I took the bus into Peel, across the Island from Douglas (on Ireland’s side of the Island), where I discovered the beautiful Peel Castle, on St. Patrick’s Isle:
Unlike in most places, the ancient structures on the Island have no real tourist-centric foundation. Visitors can simply wander into the grounds and have a look around, and I was much obliged to do so. I started by going around the back of the Castle, where I found one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen (and that’s coming from a Californian):
However, as many things I’ve found on the Island, nothing is quite as you’d expect:
Every inch of the beach wasn’t sand, but seashells. As far down as I could dig with my hands, there wasn’t a speck of sand…. Hundreds upon hundreds of shells, all washed clean, in pristine condition. I took a handful and shoved them into my bag. I figure they’ll make great souvenirs simply due to the mysterious circumstances of their acquisition.
A climb up here led me to the cliffs in the back of the castle, facing the Irish Sea.
It was quite a ways down…
(I suppose that doesn’t look so high… look carefully at the layers in the photo to get a sense for how high that actually is. I’d guess about one or two hundred feet.) Following the path onwards, I came to Peel Castle itself:
This is the church, surrounded by the outdoor fortifications on the top of St. Patrick’s Isle, overlooking Peel on one side and the Sea on the other.
The light glowed around the head of the church and flowed into the ancient alter through the window-slits. I wish my camera could have shown how beautiful this really was.
One thing about the Isle of Man is that it has many moods, and it shifts them quickly. Stormclounds can follow sun within hours, and the gulls rush in to warn the Island.
Look closely. Flocks of gulls circled Peel, and cawed for an hour before the storm started.
That’s it for Saturday. Sunday will come later tonight!
