A lifetime of Islands: Island 466 - Calf of Man, Isle of Man

The Calf of Man lies half a mile off the south west coast of the Isle of Man and separated from it by a narrow stretch of water called Calf Sound. It is a mile from north to south and from east to west at its widest points. The highest point on the island is 128 metres above sea level. The Manx name for the island is Yn Cholloo.

The Calf of Man is now owned by the Manx Museum and National Trust and run as a nature reserve. There is a bird observatory on the island, which is situated roughly in the middle of the island and in the most sheltered location. The building was previously used as a farmhouse and was built by George Carey in 1878. The bird observatory opened in 1959 and became an accredited observatory in 1962. There is a hostel/bunkhouse located at the bird observatory, which can accommodate 8 visitors. The island is on the seasonal migration routes of many birds and various nets and traps are used to catch them for ringing and recording purposes.

The Calf of Man had many private owners over the centuries. The last one - Mr F.J. Dickens of Silverdale in Lancashire - gave it to the National Trust in 1937. When the Manx Museum and National Trust was formed in 1951, they leased the island. They gained full ownership in 1986.

Two companies run day trips to the island: Shona Boat Trips, which run from Raglan Pier at Port Erin and , Port St Mary Boat Excursions, which strangely enough run from Port St Mary. I travelled with Shona Boat Trips and the crew on the boat were helpful and informative. The amount of time you get ashore varies, depending on the tides and the day I went we had 3 hours. This was enough time to walk along the footpath up the east coast of the island to Grant's Harbour at the north end of the island overlooking Calf Sound and then back down the track via the Bird Observatory to the 3 lighthouses before returning to South Harbour.

The Calf of Man has no fewer than 4 lighthouses associated with it. The first two were built by Robert Stevenson in 1818 to warn mariners of the dangers of Chicken Rock, which lies just under a mile south west of Caigher Point on the south coast of the Calf of Man. At this time the technology was not available for a lighthouse to be built on Chicken Rock itself. The lighthouses worked as a pair: when ships' crews saw the two lights converge, they knew they were close to the Chicken Rock and should alter their course. However they often obscured by fog.

By 1875, using techniques developed while building other rock lighthouses e.g. Bell Rock, a lighthouse was built on Chicken Rock itself by David and Thomas Stevenson. In December 1960 the Chicken Rock Lighthouse was badly damaged by a fire. It was automated in 1961.
In 1968 the Northern Lighthouse Board built another lighthouse on the Calf of Man between the 1818 lighthouses. This was automated in 1995 and decommissioned in 2007 when the Chicken Rock Lighthouse was upgraded and restored.

When I visited the Calf of Man in early July 2019, there were lots of dark green fritillary butterflies around. We saw several seals on the boat journey to the island. I saw and heard several choughs. There is an ongoing project to eradicate brown rats (known as long tails on the Isle of Man as there is a superstition that says you shouldn't say the word "rat".) with the aim of helping the Manx shearwater population to recover. Very few puffins breed on the island at present. In order to encourage them to choose the Calf of Man as a breeding place, model puffins have been placed on the cliffs and we saw some from the boat. However the puffins have not been taken in by these decoys! The island is grazed by Manx loaghtan sheep.

The small island in between the Calf of Man and the Isle of Man is called Kitterland. On 29th December 1852 the brig Lily ran aground on Kitterland and 5 of the people onboard were drowned. She was carrying a cargo of gunpowder and a few days later during the salvage operation it exploded and 29 people were killed.

In Calf Sound between Kitterland and the north coast of the Calf of Man is a rock called Thousla. In April 1858 the French schooner Jeane/Jeune St Charles was en route from Pontrieux in Brittany to Londonderry when she was damaged in a storm and ran aground on Thousla. The six crew abandoned ship but their lifeboat capsized and they were left clinging to the rock. The two ships boys were drowned but the remaining four men were eventually rescued several hours later by 5 boatmen from Port St Mary. The 5 boatmen involved in the successful rescue were awarded the silver Medal of Honour by the French government.

In 1859 the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses built a beacon on Thousla to warn shipping. A memorial to the two boys who were drowned, in the shape of the Iron Cross of Lorraine was erected on top of the beacon. The beacon and cross were swept away in a storm in 1905. In 1907 a concrete beacon was built on Thousla and a wooden cross was placed on top of it. In 1980 the wooden cross was removed from Thousla and re-erected near the Sound Café on the Isle of Man. It is still there.