Peel Castle, St. Patrick's Isle, Peel, Isle of Man

Peel Castle, St. Patrick

Peel Castle is of Viking origin yet the walls that you see today date from the fourteenth century. In the eleventh century though, King Magnus Barefoot built a wooden fort whose remains were found during an excavation of the site between 1982 and 1987. Also within the walls are the remains of monastic buildings and the ruined predecessor to the present day Cathedral Church of St. German that were abandoned in the eighteenth century.

My first sighting of these spectacular ruins came as I went down into Peel after walking from Port Erin by way of Raad ny Foillan, the Manx coastal path that is known in English as the Way of the Gull. The photo you see here came from the next day when the promise of more sunshine drew me across to Peel from Douglas before my return home after a Mayday bank holiday weekend visit. The day before had been cloudier so this more than made up for any of those preceding privations.

See more photos from this album (Isle of Man)