A WALK ALONG LEZAYRE ROAD

Lezayre Road, Ramsey

This is Lezayre Road, Ramsey. Looks very Suburban doesn't it? Actually it's a minute walk into the town high street, or if you like the downtown area. Not that we really have a downtown area. When you live on an island and a small town, everything becomes squashed, compact, within easy reach. As you can see it's also very quiet, very, very quiet.


Lezayre, ("garden of the island") is actually another Parish. This though is just it's namesake the road. Looking into the distance you are heading towards, Kirk Micheal, Curraghs Wildlife Park and the lead out to Peel. As you can see it is a very tree lined area and sunlight struggles to make an impact which is great for those Bresson shadows. In the distance you can see a footbridge, where the solitary walker and solitary car are situated underneath. On the left hand side of the footbridge (looking at the shot) you will find Ramsey Grammar school( the high School) and on the right hand side you would find the newly built, "Scoill Ree Gorre" or "King Orry's School" (infants and juniors.)


Quiet isn't it. What time of day do you think I took this image? Dawn perhaps? No it was 4.45pm. Just before the rush hour traffic. There is an optimum time for the photographs here. Before 4.30pm, it's full of school kids and school run cars, after 5.pm the slight rush hour. A 15 minute window for a 5 minute walk into town. Enough time to stop at intervals and play around with the light and shadows. Keep an eye on that footbridge. It's going to to be featured in it's own post soon, with it's own quirky background story.


If you follow the TT, The Isle of Man TT Road Races, motorbikes then you are looking at part of the circuit. This is the approach into Ramsey under the footbridge, coming towards the point I've taken the image from, travelling over my shoulder out of shot and onto a right turn at the Swan Pub, the backdrop for my motorbike photos. It's a lot quieter today than it is then. A lot quieter!

ODD SHOTS MONDAY- BATTLE OF SKYHILL

Viking Week, the mini series!

This is skyhill. Nothing particualry odd about the shot except perhaps it could have been a skywatch shot. What's odd to me is, that people here seem to confuse the mountain and hill names and hardly anyone can name this particular place correctly. Why so important? It's the site of the most important battle in the history of the Isle of Man, and yes those Vikings are involved again.

The Battle of Scacafell or Skyhill took place in Ramsey, Isle of Man in 1079. It was the third and final time that the Norse-Gael warrior Godred Crovan invaded the island, taking it from Dublin and Orkney. His victory over the Manx brought together the Isle of Man with the Hebrides, establishing the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles.

At the time of the battle, the Isle of Man was part of a larger political entity called the Kingdom of the Sudreys, which consisted of Man and the Hebrides. Godreds father, Harald the Black was king from c. 1035-1040, but on his death the kingdom appeared to come under the control of the Earls of Orkney. When their control over the islands lapsed around 1049, the throne passed to a distant relation of Harald the Black, Sigtrygg, whose brother was King of Dublin. His son, Godred II, who reigned until 1075, succeeded Sigtrygg.

In 1075 Godred II died and the throne was passed to Fingall, but he does not seem to have remained there long. In 1075, Godred Crovan assembled a fleet and an army, probably of Norse from the Hebrides, and attacked the island. He was repulsed, but was soon back for a second attempt. Again he was repulsed, but is during this period that Fingall disappears from the record, and it is probable he was killed during one of the invasion attempts. In 1079, Godred Crovan came back, and the chronicles are reasonably clear as to what happened next:

Scacafell

A third time he gathered a massive force and came by night to the harbour which is called Ramsey, and three hundred men he hid in a wood which was on the sloping brow of the mountain called Sky Hill. At dawn the Manxmen formed up in battle order and after a massive charge joined battle with Godred. When the battle was raging vehemently, the three hundred rose from their place of hiding at their rear and began to weaken the resistance of the Manxmen and compelled them to flee. Now when they saw themselves defeated without any place for them to escape to, for the tide had filled the riverbed at Ramsey and the enemy were pressing constantly from the other side, those that were left begged Godred with pitiful cries to spare them their lives. Moved with compassion and taking pity on their plight, since he had been reared among them for some time, he called off his army and forbade them to pursue them further.

Godred Crovan (Old Irish: Gofraid mac meic Arailt, Gofraid Méranech; Guðrøðr^[1]) (died 1095) was a Norse-Gael ruler of Dublin, and King of Mann and the Isles in the second half of the 11th century. Godred's epithet Crovan may mean "white hand" (Middle Irish: crobh bhan).^[2] In Manx folklore he is known as King Orry.

The photo was once again taken from the nature reserve looking onto the mountains and hills, apparently under the watchful eye of King Orry's Vikings. It seems the Norse people and the relationship with the island is ever present.

Want to join Odd Shots Monday?

Then see KATNEY