07-May-2026
It has been a great week for things that are rooted deep in Manx traditional soil.
First up, on Sunday 3 May, a double-locomotive steam train was set to pull eight coaches from Douglas to Port Erin. So we went down the road to our nearest bit of track to have a look:
Carpets of wild garlic...
...and a steep cutting -- great backdrop
And here it comes!
Click here for my video. Turn the sound right up, and soak up all the chuffing and clackety-clacking.
Later that same day we headed to Peel for Oie Voaldyn. May is the month that kicks off summer in the Celtic calendar, so to make sure it gets properly under way you need a festival with big bonfires and a battle between Team Winter and Team Summer (it's the latter, needless to say, that has to prevail).
Peel was doing one of its winds, and rugged up in puffer jackets and woolly hats, we all felt distinctly in need of a summery touch.
A stroll round Peel's chilly streets
Meeting the Lerwick Vikings
Peel's famous sunset path
Lots of people had turned out, so it must have been a good day for Peel businesses.
And eventually, the fires are lit, and the representatives of the rival seasons start to converge on each other:
Mythical figures dot the landscape
Here comes the Winter team
And the fires blaze cheerfully...
Unless you'd grabbed a pozzie pretty early on, and defended it in the teeth of the wind, it was a little difficult to see what was going on. In the days of the old Viking Festival, as far as I remember, the action stretched the width of the beach. Here it was much more concentrated. And the bus timetable didn't mesh with the performance times particularly well either. So we ended up leaving at 2140, which meant we missed the key moments. Never mind, I'm always up for these reactivations of old traditions, and hope this one will be back, bigger and better, next year.
And finally, today we went to the Manx Museum to see the little Manx language exhibition that's just opened:
I really do need to find some time to take this up again...