Walking the Isle of Man Coastal Path: Days, Miles, Stages

You can walk right around the Isle of Man, on a waymarked coastal path called the Raad ny Foillan, and most people take about a week. The commonly published length is roughly 95 miles, and the standard advice is that a fit walker can do it in five days while most of us should allow longer. It is a circular route from Douglas, so there is no logistics problem at either end, and you can sleep in a proper bed in a town almost every night.

How Long Does It Take to Walk Around the Isle of Man?

Five days if you are fit and travelling light. Seven or eight if you want to enjoy it, which is what most people do. Two weeks if you are walking it in day sections from a fixed base and using buses to get back, which is the least stressful way to do it and the way locals tend to suggest.

The published mileage is not quite as settled as you would expect, and it is more useful to say so than to invent a precise figure. Cicerone's guidebook Walking on the Isle of Man gives "the epic 153km (95 mile) Raad ny Foillan". The long-running Manx compendium A Manx Notebook, which describes the route section by section, agrees at "some 95 miles long" and adds that it "can be walked in 5 days though you might want to allow a bit longer". Other descriptions put it a little over 100 miles, and the section distances themselves are explicitly approximate. Take 95 to 100 miles as the honest answer and plan on the higher number.

For a sense of the outer limit, the self-supported fastest known time for the full circuit is 21 hours, 21 minutes and 25 seconds, set by Orran Smith in October 2020. That is a useful calibration rather than a target: it tells you the route is continuous and navigable, and that everything slower than a day is a matter of choice.

What the Raad ny Foillan Is

Raad ny Foillan is Manx for "the Way of the Gull", and the waymark is a gull symbol. It starts and finishes at the Millennium Bridge over Douglas Harbour and makes a complete loop of the Manx coast, so you can walk it in either direction. It is usually dated to 1986, when it was opened to mark the island's Heritage Year, though the idea is a great deal older: A Manx Notebook points out that a guidebook writer proposed a coastal circuit as far back as 1874.

Which direction you choose matters less than the weather. One long-standing local argument for going clockwise on the west coast and anti-clockwise up the east from Castletown is simply that the wind and rain generally come from the west, and walking with the weather behind you is a different day out from walking into it.

The Terrain, and Which Parts Are Hardest

This is not a uniform cliff path. It changes character several times, and the hard days are not where first-time walkers expect.

The one section with extensive climbing is Port Erin to Peel. After Fleshwick the path leaves the shoreline and climbs to over 900 feet, then ascends Cronk ny Arrey Laa at 1,434 feet, then drops and climbs back to around 500 feet before Dalby. There is no source of refreshment on the whole stretch until Niarbyl. In good weather it is the finest walking on the island. In bad weather it is a serious day.

The genuinely tiring sections are flat. From Bishopscourt in the north-west the route drops onto the shoreline and stays there until Ramsey, and walking on soft sand is slow while walking on pebbles is slower still, especially into a headwind. The long shingle stretch from the Point of Ayre down to Ramsey is the one most walkers name as the least rewarding part of the whole circuit. Budget time by effort, not by distance.

Elsewhere you get old railway trackbed, which is fast and level, between Peel and Kirk Michael and on north from there. You get some road walking, notably the two miles shared with the coast road at Strandhall and the stretch from Fairy Cottage to Baldrine, which is busy. And you get one river crossing at the Cronk where you should expect to get your feet wet after a wet spell.

A Stage Plan by Overnight Town

This is a clockwise circuit from Douglas, built around towns that have beds rather than around equal mileages. Distances are the approximate section figures from the standard description and should be treated as a guide, not a measurement.

Compressing it to five days means merging days one and two, and taking the whole flat northern run from Jurby to Ramsey in one push of about 22 miles. Stretching it is easier: split day three at Dalby, and give yourself a rest day in a self-catering base in Peel before the north.

Two honest warnings about beds. The north-west between Kirk Michael and Ramsey is the thin part; A Manx Notebook is blunt that the section from near Jurby round the Point of Ayre to Ramsey is isolated and you will need to carry supplies. And you cannot rely on finding food on the stage from Port Erin to Peel. Everywhere else you are within reach of a town, and Ramsey and Castletown both make comfortable staging posts with more than one option.

Millennium Way, Herring Road and the Glens

The coastal path is not the only waymarked route. The Millennium Way runs 28 miles across the middle of the island between Castletown and Ramsey, which makes it the obvious way to cut the loop in half or to combine a coastal leg with an inland one. Bayr ny Skeddan, the Herring Road, is a 14-mile crossing from Castletown to Peel following the route Manx fishermen once used, climbing over the Round Table near South Barrule at around 1,020 feet and dropping through Glen Rushen to Glen Maye, where it joins the coastal path.

Then there are the Manx National Glens, which are the island's secret weapon on a wet afternoon. There are around twenty of them, wooded valleys running inland from the coast, maintained by the government's Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture. Glen Maye, Dhoon Glen, Groudle Glen, Ballaglass Glen and Laxey Glen all sit on or beside the coastal path, and each gives you a short, shaded, low-effort walk with a river and usually a waterfall.

The Best Individual Day Walks

Port St Mary to Port Erin, round the Sound

Five miles of the most spectacular cliff scenery on the island, past the Chasms and the Sugarloaf, round Black Head and Spanish Head, with the Calf of Man opening up ahead and the tide race running through the Sound below. The cliffs here are a breeding ground for thousands of seabirds. Add the open-air museum at Cregneash and it is a full and easy day.

Bradda Head from Port Erin

The short version of the island's hardest stage. Climb out of Port Erin to Milner's Tower, follow the head round for the sea views, and turn back before Fleshwick. At midsummer the sun sets behind Bradda Head as seen from Port Erin, which is worth timing for.

Maughold Head from Ramsey

Five miles along the brooghs from Port-e-Vullen, with fine cliff views back over Ramsey Bay and a lighthouse built halfway down the cliff face. The churchyard at Maughold sits on the site of a Celtic monastery and holds a collection of Celtic and Norse crosses under a purpose-built shelter. On most days your companions will be sheep.

Niarbyl to Peel

The gentler half of the big western stage. Coast and cliff from the Niarbyl headland through Glen Maye, then along the shore below Corrin's Tower, the folly on the hill above Peel, and down into the town. It ends at a beach, a castle and somewhere to eat, which is the right shape for a day walk.

Snaefell from the Bungalow

Not on the coastal path at all, but the one everyone asks about. Snaefell is 2,037 feet and the only summit on the island above 2,000 feet, and the walk up from the car park by the Bungalow station on the Mountain Road is short. The mountain railway climbs the four miles from Laxey to the summit and runs seasonally rather than all year, so check current running days with the operator before you plan a walk up and a ride down.

Waymarking, Weather, Sheep and Getting Back

The gull waymarks are good and in most sections the line of the path is obvious, but carry a map anyway. There are stretches where one is essential, and there is a lot on this coast that you will walk straight past without it.

Weather here is local rather than national. The north and the south of the island frequently do entirely different things on the same morning, and it is normal to leave Douglas in drizzle and reach Ramsey in sunshine. Long-term figures for Douglas give an average of 14 to 15 days of rain a month from April through August, so pack for wet even in summer. The north is generally drier and can be windier.

You will cross a lot of grazing land, so gates, stiles and sheep are constant, and dogs need to be on a lead near livestock. Water is the other thing to plan: outside the towns there is very little, and on the Port Erin to Peel stage and the northern shore there is none at all.

Getting back to your car is the part people underestimate, and it is also the argument for walking in sections. The stage ends listed above are served by buses, but the services to the Point of Ayre and Maughold are very restricted and Jurby is the least frequent of the rest. The Manx Electric Railway shadows the coast between Douglas, Laxey and Ramsey and the steam railway serves the south, which makes both useful for one-way walks, but several of these lines run seasonally. Check current running days directly with the operator rather than assuming, and have a fallback for a Sunday.

Where to Sleep on the Way Round

The circuit works best as a chain of towns, and that is also what makes it an easy holiday to book. Castletown, Port Erin, Peel, Ramsey and Laxey each sit at a natural day's end, and Douglas closes the loop. If you would rather not move every night, a two-centre split between Douglas and Ramsey covers the transport problem better than any single base, because it halves the time spent travelling to the northern stages.

Whichever way you do it, book the nights in the thin north-west first and fill in the rest afterwards. You can compare places to stay across the Isle of Man town by town, and if you would rather spend your week at sea level, our guide to the island's beaches and coastline covers the same shoreline from the other direction.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to walk around the Isle of Man?

About five days at a fast pace, and seven or eight for most walkers. A Manx Notebook's section-by-section description says the route "can be walked in 5 days though you might want to allow a bit longer". Walking it in day sections from a fixed base, using buses and railways to return, typically spreads it across a fortnight.

How long is the Isle of Man coastal path?

Roughly 95 miles, or 153 kilometres, which is the figure Cicerone's guidebook and A Manx Notebook both give. Some other published descriptions put it a little over 100 miles, and the individual section distances are stated as approximate, so plan on 95 to 100 miles rather than a precise number.

Can you walk all the way around the Isle of Man?

Yes. The Raad ny Foillan is a complete circular loop of the Manx coast, starting and finishing at the Millennium Bridge over Douglas Harbour, and it can be walked in either direction. It dates from the mid-1980s and is waymarked throughout with a gull symbol.

Which is the hardest section of the Isle of Man coastal path?

Port Erin to Peel, about 16 miles, is the only stage with extensive climbing. After Fleshwick the path rises above 900 feet, crosses Cronk ny Arrey Laa at 1,434 feet and climbs again before Dalby, with no food or water available until Niarbyl. The flat pebble sections in the north are tiring in a different way.

Do you need a tent to walk the Raad ny Foillan?

No. For most of the route you are within easy reach of accommodation and food in a town, which is what makes this circuit unusually comfortable for its length. The exception is the northern stretch from near Jurby round the Point of Ayre to Ramsey, which is isolated and where you should carry supplies.

What is the best time of year to walk the Isle of Man coastal path?

Late spring and early autumn suit it best, when the days are long and the seabird cliffs are busy without the summer traffic. Rainfall in Douglas averages 14 to 15 wet days a month from April through August, so waterproofs matter in any season, and exposed cliff sections are best avoided in a strong wind.