Conquering mountains, one way or another, is a very human pursuit. At 621m., Snaefell is the only true mountain on the Isle of Man. But you won’t need any climbing gear to claim this cache, thankfully this mountain has been conquered in other ways. You can arrive at the co-ordinates by road or, in the summer months, by taking the mountain railway from Laxey.
Speak to anyone in the world about the Isle of Man, and, if they’ve heard of it at all, the chances are they’ll have heard of the TT races.
The first motorcycle race on the island in 1905 ran from Douglas to Castletown, the TT began in 1907 and moved onto the mountain course in 1911. With unmetalled roads, single gear bikes and farm gates to open and close, the early years of racing were as much about reliability as they were about overall speed.
The TT is still something of an endurance race, but nowadays it requires phenomenal speed as well as machine reliability and plenty of stamina. Joey Dunlop raised the absolute lap record to 115.22mph in 1980 and, at the time of publication of this geocache, Peter Hickman holds the current overall lap record of 135.452mph. In 2006 Bruce Anstey achieved the unofficial current top speed record of 206 mph.
Finn Bjorklid [Public domain]
So who is the true “King of the Mountain”? The most successful rider so far, with 26 wins to his credit, is Joey Dunlop. Our cache begins at his statue, a tribute to his incredible success, just up the hillside from The Bungalow.
Your tasks here:
- 1. Take a photo of yourself or something of yours hitching a ride with the great man himself.
- 2. According to the small brass plaque, what is not allowed here?
- (See below for task 3.)
After completing the tasks here, make your way down to the Bungalow Station.
Conquering the mountain wasn’t always about motorcycles, of course. Making the summit accessible to Victorian era visitors was appealing to businessmen who wished to profit from the boom in tourism at the time. But was a railway even possible on such a steep gradient? The scheme originally proposed in 1888 was for a steam railway, but this was not pursued. However, following the extension of the railway line from Douglas to Laxey in 1894 and using what were, at the time, some innovative techniques, the electric mountain railway we have today was completed in just 7 months by August 1895, attracting 900 visitors per day during the first short season. The original rolling stock is still in use today – with some restoration and safety improvements thankfully!
Electric Tram No 1 by Peter Killey - manxscenes.com
Your task here:
- 3. Take a photo of yourself or something of yours at the picnic area. There are webcams on the building so you might like to use the Snaefell one to take your photo.
You might like to “write” something with the white pebbles here, or perhaps hold up a sign you have made, so that even if the weather is inclement, we can tell you were here!
Please message or e-mail the answer to Q2 to the CO. Add the photos to your online log.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.