Saturday 8th September 2012

Today Dave and I decided to do something different so, we headed into Douglas. First call was the welcome centre at the sea terminal where we picked up a few leaflets then we went up onto Douglas head to park up. We decided to walk the town centre heritage trail. There are a number of these leaflets available from the centre, free of charge. They guide you around the area, highlighting points of interest. So, first stop was Victoria Street, formerly known as Queen Victoria Street where we saw the sun god above a doorway, a statue of the aforementioned Queen and the old clock and watch works.

We then took a bit of a diversion to find a part of the old sea defences that remain. There hasn't always been a sea wall, people had to defend their own properties from the pounding waves. Also, the sea came a lot further in, a large strip of land has been claimed from the sea.

Back on track, we walked past the old Ridgeway Hotel (now offices) and took pictures of the George Formby statue

 

We then headed up past the Isle of Man Bank and Tynwald before heading towards St Mary's RC church and then onto St Georges. St Georges is the burial place of Sir William Hillary, the founder of the RNLI. Also, within the grounds are mass graves of the cholera epidemics which swept the island in 1832/1833 and of the Minerva shipwreck

Inside the church itself, is a lamp known as the Florence Nightingale lamp which was presented to the church in 1954 (I think) by the nurses of Nobles. The large window at the end of the church was donated by Henry Bloom Noble which might explain why the nurses donated the lamp.

We carried on to the street which contains some of the oldest buildings in Douglas, one of which now houses Isola restaurant

We carried on along our walk, linking up with the maritime walk in places but, that leaflet had been left in the car. After lunch, we drove to Glen Helen where (eventually) the sun made an appearance