LADY ISABELLA, THE LAXEY WHEEL

As you can see, we have escped the snow flurries today. We had about 15 mins when we had hailstones, but that was it. Snow is a rarity here. So our day in Laxey went ahead and I was able to take this photo looking onto the Wheel from the hillside

Laxey Wheel, The Lady Isabella(named after the Lieutenant's Governer's wife ot the time) was designed by John Casement in 1854 and used to pump water away from the mines. It still remains the largest working watermill in the world. Now one of the main tourist attractions on the island. The brave, for a small fee can go to the top and survey the land around.

The Triskelion, the 3 legs of man symbol displayed is the national image of the island and is actually the wrong way round.They forgot to reverse the image when it was transfered and so remains the opposite to it should be. Incidently you may have seen the 3 legs symbol on another islands flag, that of Sicily. The Wheel even has a piece of music dedicated to it by Stuart Slack.

Laxey, is again Norse and means "Salmon River." A normally sedate town, although the quiet is disrupted once a year for the Laxey Blues festival, where virtually the whole town is turned into a mini Glastonbury, without the mud, and good time is had into the early hours by all.