Groudle Glen

Groudle Glen runs down to the sea just north of Douglas, wooded and steep, and in the 1890s it was developed as a pleasure ground with a two-foot gauge railway built to carry visitors out to a headland where sea lions and polar bears were kept in a pool cut into the rock. The animals are long gone; the railway was restored by volunteers and runs to the same headland on summer Sundays. The pool is still visible below.

Background

Groudle lies on the outskirts of Onchan and is one of the officially listed Manx National Glens. It was a hamlet of a few cottages until the Manx Electric Railway reached it in 1893, when it became a tourist attraction billed as The Fern Land of Mona, and its owners planted many kinds of trees to interest Victorian visitors. A small cove was dammed for the zoo of sea lions and polar bears, and the three-quarter-mile Groudle Glen Railway followed in 1896, which is why its outer station is still called Sea Lion Rocks. Visitors also had a bandstand, a dance floor and a water wheel named Little Isabella after the Laxey Wheel.

Source: Wikipedia, "Groudle Glen"

Highlights

• The narrow gauge railway - the 1896 line restored and running to the headland.
• The sea lion pool - the rock enclosure cut for the Victorian zoo, still visible.
• The wooded glen - the steep valley running down to the shore.
• The headland terminus - the point the line was built to reach.

When to go

The railway runs on summer Sundays and some holidays. The glen walk works year round. April and May bring bluebells through the woods.

What to expect

The railway operates on a very limited timetable, mostly summer Sundays. The glen paths are steep and can be muddy. The Victorian zoo remains are ruins with no interpretation.

Nearby

Douglas is south, and Laxey is north along the electric railway.