I planned this walk to save the best bit until last. This is one of the nicest of our disused railway lines that hasn’t been ‘upgraded’ and retains the natural wildlife around it. The rest of the walk is very good too!
I started at St. John’s and walked in an easterly direction along the railway track for about a mile. This is naturally flat, but this section isn’t especially inspiring, although some of the wildflowers waving in the fields looked magnificent. I crossed the Ballamodha Road, where there is an old station building and walked to the next road junction on the outskirts of Greeba. Here I turned right up the lane for a short distance and then the path leads off to the left. I had never walked this track before and it is very pleasant, providing excellent views of Greeba Mountain.
It is an upward path for about a mile, but not difficult. The highest point is 656 ft over this distance. It is a gentle slope on the side of a valley that eventually takes you to the Cornelly Mines. This makes a good coffee stop, and you can climb the stile and peruse the site if you wish. I declined this invitation, walking past the mines to go into the Archallagon plantation.
There are many routes through this, and I mostly took the track shown on the map, until I spied a field of purple wildflowers looking splendid against the backdrop off the mines. From then on I took a lesser path that would get me to the same destination. I came across some orchids beside the path, perhaps not at their best now, but nice to know they are there; and I watched as chaffinches flitted from branch to branch.
I left the plantation at the southerly car park and walked along the road for a short distance. I had noticed a short cut down to the hairpin bend at Foxdale, and this turned out to be a very attractive, if overgrown in places, footpath. It terminates just before the top reservoir. I kept to the less frequented lane to avoid the Foxdale main road, passing some lovely houses and the Kionslieu reservoir I visited a month or so go.
Now the wildflowers in this lane had changed from the meadow buttercup to cow parsley and harebells. This time, I took the lane at the top of the hill that leads down to Foxdale, passing by the towering Old Vicarage and church.
It was no distance from here to the start of the railway track that would take me to St. John’s. the old station building remains and the track leads below the houses on the top road, allowing us to see into their gardens and also appreciate that what you see of the houses from the road is only a fraction of the size they really are, as they are built into the hillside. The walk along here was just lovely, with the drop on the right deepening with every step. I could hear the water in the unspoilt stream bubbling away below, but there is not footpath beside the stream, so the vegetation has taken over and looks most attractive.
The track crosses the main road, though I continue to be puzzled as to why I had to climb the height of a bridge to rejoin it. Presumably it was in two sections at some point? From here to St Johns the path is sometimes more open, sometimes in trees, but giving you glimpses of the countryside in different directions. It was so pretty as the sun came out making everything look cheerful.
I saw very few people on this walk, just a few dog walkers in the Archallagon plantation and cyclists on the other footpaths. You can shorten this route in a couple of places, or if time is limited or you don’t want any hill-climbing, you could park in Foxdale, walk the railway line, and get the (occasional) bus back to St. John’s. All routes are beautiful. You won’t be disappointed.
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Gill's Isle of Man Walks 