It has been a long time since I took a stroll up Slieu Whallian despite wistfully admiring the tree-strewn hill while passing through St John’s.

So a couple of weeks ago I decided to head up through the plantation to the summit on a rather soggy, autumnal day.

Aside from the scenery and views, Slieau Whallian has its own intrigue with a rather macabre past.

To Manx folk, it is well-known the hill was the scene of the persecution of those accused of witchcraft.

Unfortunate women and men accused of being a witch would be put into a barrel, with sharp iron spikes inserted inwards and rolled down from the top of the hill to the bottom. There were probably fewer trees back then.

One man accused of murder and condemned to suffer such a fate at Slieu Whallian pleaded his innocence.

He told his accusers that if he was not guilty, a thorn-tree would grow at his head where he was buried and that a well or spring of water would lie found at his feet. The well and thorn-tree are said to be seen to this day.

It was also told he haunted the area afterwards, terrifying the locals for years to come.

With all these tales in mind, I parked up at the bottom of Slieu Whallian Road, at the junction with Patrick Road, and walked up until I came to the entrance gate which has a stile next to it.

Slieau Whallian rises steeply to a height of 900 feet. To be honest, I was winging it and decided to just pick the steepest path each time there was a fork to get up in the shortest time.

Despite rain over the previous days, the sun chose to come out as I walked up which was very welcome.

At various points I stopped ‘to admire the view’ but really for a breather although the views down over St John’s were lovely.

I ended up veering off the main path and going up a rather thin trail, probably created by bikes.

I was rewarded with this off-piste route with luscious and vibrant green moss and trees and a mysterious wall. I’m not sure what it was once used for.

Had it been a few degrees warmer it would have felt like I was in the Borneo jungle.

However, my route was blocked by a large fallen tree which involved a fair bit of clambering and battling through brambles to get back on track.

Reaching the top was quite sudden with the stile over the fence just ahead of me.

At this point, the weather was clear and as I reached the cairn there were stunning views of Peel.

I then realised I hadn’t reached the summit and there was another peak which looked miles away.

After mulling it over for a bit, I decided I had the time to trek up and after walking just a few hundred meters I released it wasn’t that far away after all or that high, about another 200 feet higher.

This part of the walk is designated a ‘permissible path’ which means you are walking on private land and have permission so long as you remain on the path. But, with the wet weather, I was sometimes traipsing through a stream.

Most of it was quite level barring the final push to the top. But these extra couple of hundred feet made a huge difference when it came to the weather.

At the top there was thick mist which meant I could see next to nothing but it did provide an eerie mysticism to the ambience. I’m led to believe there are great views of Peel and further south to Cronk-my-Arrey-Laa and South Barrule.

I started down a different path but realised it would mean bypassing the plantation and I was quite keen to enjoy the scenery on the way back so I had to retrace my steps and I headed back into the trees.

I took a less direct route back and zig-zagged down the main paths back to my car.