WHO knew that Scotland and Cornwall were only miles away from each other? Or that you could be basking in bright sunshine one moment and shivering under the Cloak of Manannan the next? The Isle of Man, merely 33 miles long by 13 miles wide, encompasses every landscape, from high moorland to gorse-strewn valleys, sandy beaches to chequerboard fields. Little wonder, then, that the population spends much of its time outdoors.
The Isle of Man is the only entire nation to have UNESCO Biosphere status
The island’s most famous sporting event is, of course, the TT motorbike race meeting. Black-and-white chequered curbs delineate the corners and the mile markers stay in place all year round, so you can drive the 37.73-mile circuit yourself. There are no speed limits, although it’s perhaps best not to reach the 100 miles per hour (or more) of the racing bikes. Emulating the worldbeating local cyclists is a safer goal—Mark Cavendish and Peter Kennaugh grew up here and honed their skills climbing the mountains and swooping around the coast. Clubs abound, such as Cycle360, Douglas, a hub for all things two-wheeled.
There’s no need for speed on the island’s nine golf courses. Indeed, such are the views that you would be forgiven for taking your time to tee off. Close enough to the airport for players to leave London early and be at the first hole by 10 am is Castletown, a championship links course founded and laid out by Old Tom Morris in 1891. Jutting out into the sea, its edges crinkled with rocky inlets and scattered with gorse bushes, it is a delight with or without a set of golf clubs in hand.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August 19, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August 19, 2020-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
