A seven-day closure of the Mountain Road began at 8am on Easter Monday to allow preparation works to take place ahead of this year’s TT festival.
The Department of Infrastructure last month announced the closure between Ramsey Hairpin and Creg-ny-Baa, revealing the measure was necessary to allow essential maintenance, including lining, ditching and sign maintenance, plus the resurfacing and re-profiling of the carriageway on the Keppel Gate section.
An eagle-eyed reader – perhaps more accurately described as a frustrated biker given the good conditions on the day – was perplexed, therefore, when they took a look at webcams on the government’s visitisleofman.com website at lunchtime on Monday and spotted what appeared to be a film crew setting up, followed by a car travelling at high speed.
A spokesman for the DoI confirmed their suspicions yesterday (Wednesday).
He said: ‘A German film production company were in the island over the weekend shooting a commercial for a new Audi car and Ducati motorcycle. They had been using various locations on the island and had permission from the DoI to use a portion of the Mountain Road while it was closed for the pre-TT works.’
The road remains closed but is scheduled to reopen at 6pm on Sunday – earlier if the work is completed in good time.