ISLE of MAN

The Isle of Man is not just Victorian promenades and TT racing. Ben Lerwill explores this outdoor playground brimming with natural wonders and ancient history... and a wildlife surprise or two

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I’m awake. Very awake. It’s early on a wind-whipped Sunday morning and I’m neck-deep in the sea off the Isle of Man’s northeast coast. The rain is steady, the swell is heavy and the water is gasp-inducingly cold. Icy waves roll past my shoulders, pounding onto the shingled sand of Ramsey Beach. It’s sensory, raw and exhilarating.

On the shore, a barrel-shaped mobile sauna overlooks the bay, its end window facing the waves. I was inside it until two minutes ago and I'll be back inside its birch-fired warmth in a minute more. A weekend lie-in is all well and good, but it’s hard to think of a more enlivening wake-up than pairing the biting chill of the sea with the intense heat of a sweatbox. If this is island life, sign me up.

A breakfast of sea-dipping and saunas is the sort of thing that happens when you’re in the company of Andy North, the author of recently released guidebook Wild Guide Isle of Man: Hidden Places, Great Adventures & The Good Life. If the classic image of the island is one of Victorian promenades, heritage railways and TT racing - a kind of tourism time-capsule in the middle of the Irish Sea with added motorbikes - Andy turns it into a vivid natural playground, a place of unrushed wonders, ancient history and outdoor exploration.

“Lichens like this can live for 10,000 years,” he says later the same morning, as we examine a yellow algae colony on a coastal rock. “Isn’t that mind-blowing?” It is. When I look up, gannets are high-diving offshore and the peaks of the Lake District are visible across the water as a mirage above the sea haze. I’ve come to the island to spend three days being guided by Andy – having made my way here by ferry from Liverpool – and I’m already learning that it’s somewhere with stirring gifts.