Strange and mythical creatures have appeared all along the length of the newly-laid heritage railway line over the past few months.
The five sculptures are all the work of chainsaw artist Tony Elder, who runs Manx Chainsaw carvings.
He was commissioned by the Department of Infrastructure to create a series of carvings of Manx folklore figures to decorate the trail and he finished positioning the last of the huge installations near Peel at the end of October.
Travelling from Douglas, walkers and cyclists will first encounter an enormous Buggane, near to the site of St Trinian’s church, at Greeba.
Further down the line the next folklore figure to greet them will an even bigger sculpture, the Tall Man of Ballachurry.
Once part St John’s, the ’Lost Wife of Ballaleece’, who was captured and spirited away by the little people, stands close to Ballaleece farm itself and, closer to Peel, the mysterious Tarroo Ushtey stands near to the Raggatt.
The final sculpture is a huge and terrifying recreation of the Moddey Dhoo, just on the outskirts of Peel.
Tony has created each piece out of single large piece of wood and, using nothing but a chainsaw, has created five very different pieces, each with their own individual details and identities.
’What is interesting about creating these is that, with these folklore creatures, obviously there are no photographs to go on,’ said Tony.
’You have complete artistic license to an extent and to get an idea of what I was designing and often I’d be using no more than three lines of text from folklore tales as inspiration.
’For example, with the Tall Man of Ballachurry, the text said that he had a frilly collar, boots, britches and buckles, and that he was really ugly!
’I just made a huge man, a giant 10-foot carving from a huge piece of oak, which weighs something like two and a half tons.
’There are so many variations of illustrations of the Buggane, that you can’t point to one and say that’s the definitive version.
’And the "Tarroo Ushtey" is just weird. It’s a water bull, with scales and horns. It’s a creature that looks like it’s part bull, part fish.
’The Moddey Dhoo and the Tall Man were made from the same tree, and I worked with the tree surgeon, Joe Wood, to cut the tree exactly where I wanted him to.’
When it came to the finished carvings, Tony said that the shape of the wood often dictated the final look of the piece.
’With the Moddey Dhoo, there was a branch coming out of one part and the wood was twisted,’ he said.
’That worked well as it gave the Moddey Dhoo that sense of movement, with its head looking like it’s coming round from its shoulders. I would like to say that it was all in the planning, but the wood does tend to dictate a lot.’
l You can find out more about Tony’s work from the ’Manx Chainsaw carvings’ Facebook page.
by Mike Wade
Twitter:@iomnewspapers