Manx National Heritage is an arm of the IOM Government and is charged with the upholding, preservation and where necessary, the restoration of the long history of Ellan Vannin.

From Manx National Heritage website we have this overview of:

THE STORY OF MANN

It is a unique portrayal by Manx National Heritage of cultural and heritage assets across 227 square miles (588 square kilometres) of historic and scenic landscape.

The Story of Mann concept preserves, presents and promotes a combination of historic properties, ancient monuments, natural landscapes and formal museums, by emphasising the inter-linked nature of these assets in the historic story of the Island’s development.

The Story begins at The Island’s Treasure-House (‘Thie Tashtee Vannin’ in Manx), otherwise known as The Manx Museum headquarters of Manx National Heritage in the Island’s capital, Douglas.

THE OLD MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE MANX MUSEUM - CRELLINS HILL - DOUGLAS (THIS WAS THE ORIGINAL NOBLES HOSPITAL AS BUILT BY "HENRY BLOOM NOBLE" IN 1886 )

Here, award-winning museum displays and the latest video technology introduce 10,000 years of Manx history. This initial show-case of Manx history is your invitation to explore the rest of the Island’s rich heritage.

We aim to present the historic story of the Island in a visually stimulating and memorable way, to the highest professional standards, in a way which stimulates and encourages visits to major heritage sites throughout the Island, providing a heightened understanding and appreciation of the Manx inheritance.

The portrayal of the Story of this historic landscape has required the development of three important areas of professional control:

• a high level of professional management which has promoted a culture of trust based upon the keeping of promises to various private and public sectors of the community which are persuaded to participate in the overall plan.
• a high level of academic study, including the formal creation of a Centre for Manx Studies in partnership with the Island’s Department of Education and Liverpool University. For the first time in history, Manx students can now study their own national history at University graduate and post-graduate level.
• a carefully developed marketing strategy which complies with the long-term preservation requirements of the heritage assets and also appeals, on a continuing basis, to all sectors of the community.

Road Sign for Cregneash

It has traditionally been believed that Christianity was brought to the Isle of Man from Celtic Ireland by St. Patrick. Although there is no precise evidence of particular individuals, the first Christian missionaries must have arrived around 500 AD, from other Celtic countries, and from Ireland in particular.

The missionaries built tiny chapels (keeills), set in burial grounds amidst lintel graves and often with a holy well (chibbyr) near-by. The priest would have prayed inside the chapel, but preached and baptised his flock outside. The earliest simple memorial stones carved with crosses date from this period.

174 such keeills are recorded, but the remains of only 35 can be identified today. All traces of the earliest keeills have been lost in re-building; many medieval churches, such as Kirk Maughold and Kirk Christ Malew, were erected on keeill sites.

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The keeills were probably served by priests from monastic centres like Kirk Maughold, the major monastery on the Island at that time.

Farmers & Crofting

The land has always provided food, clothing, income and employment for the great majority of Manx people and was the backcloth to their lives. Between 1885 and 1890 71% of the island was arable or improved land. Today it is less than 50%.

There were many levels of farming including the wealthy quarterland farm with substantial land holdings, the smaller class of farmer who might be managing a split quarterland farm or an intack farm where additional land was enclosed usually in the uplands and finally the crofter who could be found at places like Cregneash in the south of the Island

Native breeds of horses, cattle, sheep and pigs still survived until the eighteenth century. Cattle and ponies tended to be small and stocky. By the nineteenth century breeds imported from England were common. The Loaghtan sheep survives today as a rare reminder of the native breeds of the Isle of Man.

The term crofter refers to a small scale farmer who owned or rented a smallholding and who depended on diverse crafts for his livelihood. Fishing, spinning and weaving, smithying and wood turning often supplemented his meagre resources. Crofting villages were characterised by their thatched dwellings of stone, the narrow strip field systems and their dry stone walls.

Spinning Yarn Cregneash

The Grove

Until the beginning of this century, Cregneash was a typical upland crofting village, or clachan, isolated from modern developments in the rest of the Island and preserving the old customs and traditions handed down from father to son through generations of Manxmen. Perhaps the strongest of these traditions was the Manx language itself, for y Ghailck was spoken by all the inhabitants of Cregneash within living memory.

The Grove Museum in Ramsey falls between the croft and the Quarterland. It's threshing mill driven by a horse walk suggests that at one time Duncan Gibb (the head of the house) owned extensive farmland. Displays of agricultural equipment in the original outbuildings provide a picture of farming life in the rich lowland areas of the Isle of Man which contrast markedly with the more basic requirements of the upland crofting community.

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The history of Mann, from the ninth century colonisation by the Norse, is a turbulent tale of Vikings, English and Scots striving for supremacy and ultimately Lordship of Mann. Occasionally peace broke out, but kings such as Olaf I, who reigned for half a century, were rarities - and even he was publicly murdered. Other notable kings included his father, Godred Crovan, who is traditionally credited with uniting Mann with the Scottish Isles.

By 1405, England had gained control of Mann and a grateful Henry IV granted kingship of the Island to Sir John Stanley after his intervention at the Battle of Bosworth. The Stanleys soon established themselves against Scottish and Spanish threats, thereby protecting the western seaboard of England. Later they supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, and despite the execution in 1651 of James Stanley for his Royalist sympathies, the family dynasty ruled until 1736.

The Great Stanley

Most Kings and Lords of Mann spent little time on the Island, leaving government, defence and justice to their officials and soldiers, who were based in the fortresses of Peel Castle and Castle Rushen. Peel Castle was extensively developed over five centuries to protect Peel's natural harbour from attack, and occupies the richest archaeological site on the Island.

Castle Rushen is situated at the centre of Castletown, the Island's former capital. It is one of Europe's most finely preserved medieval castles. Norse kings were the first to fortify the strategic site at the mouth of the Silverburn River, the central stone Keep dating from the thirteenth century. It was here that Magnus, the last Viking King of Mann, died in 1265.

The Scottish and English successors of Magnus were radically to develop the castle over the next three hundred years, its towering limestone walls becoming a brooding presence in the south of the Island and a constant reminder to the local populace of the dominance of the Kings and Lords of Mann.

Castle Rushen Banqueting Hall

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Mann & the Sea

In the Isle of Man, no one is ever very far from the sea. For its inhabitants the surrounding waters have always been central to life, providing fish and seabirds to eat, weed to fertilise the soil, and the routes over which they have sailed to trade, legally or illegally, with surrounding lands.

For centuries the fishing industry was a pillar of the Manx economy and intimately bound up with traditional ways of Manx life.

It was asserted in 1883 that "In the Isle of Man one person out of every five depends on fishing for his daily bread, and one person out of every four is directly or indirectly dependent on fishing for a livelihood".

Many of the Manx people financially dependent on the sea never actually set foot on a boat. Instead they worked in associated trades and crafts such as; boat-building, net-making, sail making and fish curing all vital to keep the fishermen and seamen afloat.

Boat-building

Many of the Manx people financially dependent on the sea never actually set foot on a boat. Instead they worked in associated trades and crafts such as; boat-building, net-making, sail making and fish curing all vital to keep the fishermen and seamen afloat.

However, the Manx harbours were not just centres for the fishing industry. They were also a hive of commercial activity throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Trading schooners brought goods from all over the world to ports in the Isle of Man, and local products were exported.

The Manx ports are the obvious places to search for evidence of the Island's long association with the sea. Some of the harbour frontages have changed in recent years, but there are still many clues to the Manx maritime tradition

Peel Harbour

To be continued...

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Celts And Vikings

Two races - the Celts and the Vikings - have been the defining elements in the forging of the Manx identity. The well-preserved historical landscape of the Isle of Man still contains many of their relics, and provides a constant reminder of the antecedents of our national character.

Odin's Raven 1979

The earliest inhabitants of the Isle of Man we can really claim to know lived some 1,500 years ago. A race of Christian Celts, they spoke a language we can recognise, built homes and defences, and raised crosses in memory of their dead.

But these Celts had a much older heritage, going back perhaps another 1,000 years. We know of it only what we can discover from artefacts they left behind, and the places where they lived, worked and died.

Stretching a skin

Calf of Man Altar Slab

Around the time of Christ, Roman invaders occupied much of Britain. But they largely ignored the Isle of Man; archaeology has revealed few signs of Roman influence here, and nothing to suggest permanent occupation. Left undisturbed, the Manx Celts traded and absorbed the ideas, material culture and religion of their neighbours.

At the end of the eighth century the first of the raiders from Scandinavia came to the Irish Sea. Despite almost 500 years of Scandinavian trade and migration, Norse influence did not entirely prevail. The Celtic language survived, and the Viking invaders were converted to Christianity.

There is much that we shall never know about the people who inhabited this Island between 2,500 and 1,000 years ago. But the sites and artefacts of our archaeological heritage give us tantalising glimpses of the way they lived...

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HILLFORTS

South Barrule

More than 70 small roundhouses, crowded onto the 480-metre summit of South Barrule, make up the Island’s most impressive hillfort. A double rampart surrounds them - the outer ring later than the inner - and archaeological evidence has shown that the site was occupied between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago. Fragments of Bronze Age pottery, the only objects which remained, can be seen in the Manx Museum

South Barrule

Cronk Sumark

Cronk Sumark is a smaller hillfort. This is a very dramatic and virtually impregnable site, on a steep-sided rocky hillock overlooking the Island’s northern plain. It has never been excavated, but has been dated to the Iron Age on the basis of comparison with similar sites elsewhere in western and northern Britain.

Cronk Sumark

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Excavation on St. Patrick’s Isle at Peel has uncovered a number of timber roundhouses up to ten metres in diameter, and including a grain store which burned down some 2,400 years ago. An Iron Age community had made use of the natural defences of the islet; it seems very possible that the site was occupied by a chieftain, and that the granary held his accumulated wealth.

Two or three hundred years later, great timber roundhouses, up to 30 metres in diameter, were being built in inaccessible wetland sites.

The reconstructed roundhouse in the House of Manannan at Peel is based on the remains of two such buildings found on private land at Ballacagen near Castletown. Their inhabitants managed woodland, grew cereals, raised cattle, wove textiles, worked metals, and - to judge from the imported glass and metal objects found - traded with the outside world.

The outer wall was made from vertical posts set close together in a foundation trench, and packed with stones to keep them upright. Large wooden posts, arranged in concentric rings, supported a roof of timber and turf. The central hearth was formed by a bed of stones. Areas inside the roundhouse were paved with small stones. The entrance was also paved with larger stones so that the threshold did not wear down.

Ballacagen Roundhouses

Structure of a Roundhouse

To be continued...

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Promontory Forts

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Wonderful post Elizabeth, and I will have to go back and read again.  A bit slow absorbing at times, I am.    Looking forward to your continuation as well Elizabeth.

for this informative post!  Wonderful reading and very interesting!

  Maggie

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I love all this history Elizabeth ~ Thank you for such depth and diversity here. Some of it carries with it a sense of intrigue and maybe a little unknown.

Your posts always are wonderful and very very interesting.

Clare ~

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Carrying on our way through The Story of Mann with the wonderful overview from Manx National Heritage who is acknowledged here once again.

A Celtic & Viking Farmstead

The Braaid

A site at the Braaid remains one of the most enigmatic in the Island. Originally thought to be a prehistoric stone circle with two stone alignments, it has now been re-interpreted as a stone-built roundhouse and two longhouses. This is the only Manx example of a Celtic farmstead taken over and adapted by the Vikings for their own use. The site was later abandoned because it was too wet, and probably relocated to one of the nearby quarterland farmsteads still in use today; the remains of other Viking farmsteads may still survive beneath many of these quarterland farms.

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all for your comments.

Yes the history of Mann makes very interesting reading and for a small nation/compact island, we have so much that an overview is a wonderful way to keep it in one thread.  I do realise however, that some has been already covered elsewhere. Still it is nice to do it again here too.

again.

Elizabeth 

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Buried Boats & Bizarre Rites

Ballateare Sacrifice

Ballateare

The grave at Ballateare was simpler, but the findings were very dramatic, including the mutilated remains of a young woman sacrificed to accompany the dead man into the underworld. A sword, three spears and a shield were also found in this grave. All the artefacts from Ballateare can be seen in the Manx Museum.

The Pagan Lady

Recent excavation within Peel Castle on St. Patrick’s Isle, has produced evidence of at least seven more pagan burials, all located within a Christian cemetery. This hints at the integration of peoples, material cultures and beliefs which would ultimately shape the Manx identity.

Pagan Lady's Necklace

Viking Sword

to be continued...

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The Stone Crosses

The integration of Viking and Celt in the Isle of Man is further confirmed by carved stone memorials bearing runic inscriptions which record both Scandinavian and native Gaelic names. Equally eloquent are the art and iconography of the crosses; images from pagan mythology give way to those of Christianity, and the art forms of the Scandinavians meld with those of the Celtic west to form a style unique to the Island

Gaut's Cross

Sigurd's Cross

The outstanding collections of crosses are at the parish churches of:

• Andreas
• Jurby
• Maughold
• Michael
• Lonan
• Braddan

and in the Manx Museum, Douglas.

Parish Churches with Manx Cross Collections

to be continued..

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your interesting story really makes me feel like visiting your island and even more... exchanging and corresponding with a school there (if any ??? LOL) and my own students and make them meet to discover this beautiful "emerald island" of Europe.

by the way , I am participating in a folkloric festival in France every summer... Is there a traditional folklore group on your island and maybe we can invite them to our little town ( and why not you, as their ambassador and we could meet ???- as I am back in europe every summer )

lots of love

Marijo

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Hullo Marijo,

Yes the story of Mann is a wonderful overview by the Manx National Heritage. The IOM is very proud of its heritage as I am sure you have gathered. 

You would be very welcome to visit any time, and you would surely love it here.

There is a group called the Stationary Willberries who, although I know little about them, may be interested....  go to their website...

http://www.manxman.ch/indexdata/index_e.htm  and I am sure you could make contact with them through there

for your posting.

Slane lhiats

Elizabeth 

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Tynwald

The World’s Oldest Continuous Parliament.

The most enduring relic of Scandinavian culture in the Isle of Man is the Island’s parliament, Tynwald. After 1,000 years the world’s oldest continuous parliament normally sits in Douglas, but still meets once a year at midsummer on the Tynwald Hill at St. Johns. This was not the only meeting place for Tynwald, and like others it was given legitimacy by its closeness to a burial ground - in this case one of the oldest and most extensive on the Island - and allowed the living to be associated with land owned or administered by their forbears.

Tynwald 1796

But Tynwald is more relevant to the living than the dead. It is a vital social institution, and, after all the past conquests and re-conquests, today it is consolidating the independence of the Isle of Man.

Tynwald Today

See also the thread on Tynwald - Manx Parliament

to be continued..

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The Keeils

Maughold Monastary

 Click to enlarge

The present Kirk Maughold Parish Church dates from the twelfth century, but within the churchyard lie the remains of three earlier buildings. It seems likely that this was a mission station, founded by the seventh century, from where priests would have gone out to spread the Christian word.

The legend of MaCuil describes how this Irish bandit was cast up on the shores of the Isle of Man after being set adrift in a coracle as a penance. It is said that Maughold was "called after him ". Whatever the legend, it may safely be assumed that Maughold was commissioned as a Bishop of Mann in the sixth century.

St. Maughold

Spooyt Vane - White Watersprout

Cabbal Pherick (St. Patrick’s Chapel) was built in a wooded glade close to a waterfall and river. Its roof was probably thatched, on a timber frame supported by slate walls. The altar under the east window was outlined with small stones set on edge and faced with larger stones. A stone with a small hollow for oil ( a cresset stone) would have been used to light it. Outside the enclosure was a cell where the priest lived, and to the west a small well which may have been used for baptisms.

St. Patricks Chapel

Spooyt Vane Waterfall

Lag Ny Keeiley - Hollow of the Chapel

Lag ny Keeilley is on an old packhorse track on the Island’s south west coast, in an extraordinarily wild and desolate spot. There is evidence of a small living cell and herb garden, so this was almost certainly a hermitage site. The burial ground contains stone-lined lintel graves, and some very simple slate crosses have been found

Lag ny Keeilley

Slate Cross

to be continued...

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Since the 5th century AD crosses have served in the Isle of Man as grave markers and memorial stones. To date, 204 decorated stones have been found, representing the largest concentration of such stones for this period. The great majority remain in the churches and churchyard ‘cross shelters’ of their parish of origin. Cast copies of all the stones are kept at the Manx Museum, forming an invaluable reference collection. Wherever the stones are housed, they are treated as Ancient Monuments and as such are under the protection and guardianship of Manx National Heritage.

The earliest slabs show Celtic styles, from simple cross designs to the later complicated interlace. Inscriptions in Ogham, Celtic lettering, or very occasionally Latin, commemorate the dead. Most of these Celtic crosses can be seen in the cross shelter at Kirk Maughold, with others at Old Kirk Lonan, Old Kirk Braddan and Onchan Parish Church.

After the Vikings settled on Mann, and later converted to Christianity, Norse sculptors decorated images from their pagan mythology with Celtic interlace. Memorial runes link Norse and Celtic names within families, evidence of intermarriage. Fine examples of Norse crosses can be seen at the parish churches of Maughold, Andreas, Jurby, Michael and Old Kirk Braddan

Many of the 44 crosses in the cross shelter at Kirk Maughold Parish Church are Celtic, some revealing the names of priests and bishops of the former monastery. Irneit, probably a bishop, is commemorated on a cross dating from 650-700 AD.

A slab dating from about 1200AD has the runic inscription

Juan priest cut these runes

and another one of three found at the Corony Keeill (Keeill Woirrey) reads

Christ, Malachi, Patrick and Adamnan. But of all the sheep is Juan priest in Corndale.

Norse crosses here include one which shows scenes from the story of Sigurd the Dragon-Slayer

In Kirk Michael Parish Church the tenth century Gaut’s cross is outstanding, not only for the quality of its ring-chain pattern but because its runic inscription gives us our only glimpse of the human being behind the carvings - "Gaut made this and all in Mann".

There are also two names of Celtic origin - "Mael Brigde, son of Athakan the Smith, erected this cross for his own soul and that of his brother’s wife" - showing the intermingling of Norse and Celtic blood on the Island. Mael Brigde is an early form of the Manx name Bridson.

Other crosses in this church show figures form both Norse mythology and the Christian story. The Crucifixion slab has Christ with a cockerel, symbolising the resurrection, on one face, and a winged figure on the other.

Standing probably in its original position by Old Kirk Lonan is the impressive Celtic wheel-headed cross-slab known as the "Lonan Cross". Here, decoration consists entirely of Celtic interlacing, knots and plait-work. The remains of other crosses are displayed in the cross shelter.

The Calf of Man Crucifixion is the most outstanding of all the Manx Celtic pre-Norse carvings. This fragment of an altar frontal was discovered on the Calf of Man in 1773 and is now displayed in the award winning Archaeological Gallery at the Manx Museum, Douglas.

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Please click the thumbnails in the above posting to get the enlarged picture.

This is the end of the overview of The Story of Mann.  I hope you have enjoyed the presentation.

I would like to acknowledge and thank the Manx National Heritage for their wonderful foresight in preserving the living heritage of the Isle of Man for posterity.

http://www.gov.im/mnh/

Enjoy

Elizabeth,  your host

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Hi, Elizabeth, Thank you for your loving attention and reverence to your lovely Isle. You certainly present the seemedly infinite depth of meaning your Isle's history. This says a lot about you, too!

Also, thank you for sending your poems. I look forward to every one of them!

May you dream of perfect congruency in the peacefullness within and bring that back into your daily life.

Sincerely,

Joy

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Thank you Joy.... I hope you enjoy your stay here on Mann.

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What a lovely site you have elizabeth!

are ya sure this is not really the isle of Lewis?

love n peace x

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Hi Pete..... or may be even the Isle of Avalon who knows, but I love it anyway.

Come visit us, please do.

Elizabeth

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Hi Elizabeth,

I've seen alot about the Celtic Cross, but haven't come across anything about the origin of the three-legged symbol.   Could be I just missed something.  My great aunt gave me a spoon from her childhood with the three-legged symbol.  I am now on quest to find it! I know it's in a box somewhere...

Silly Question Section:

One more thing, I was reading about Manx cats, and read most of the native stock is extinct or has been crossbred.  Have you ever heard of a native Manx dog?

Thanks!

A

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Hi Charith.... thanks for your posting... yes the IOM has its own government/parliament.... Tynwald.... and you will find several threads covering the status of the IOM in relation to the UK.... described as a crown dependency.

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Hello,

I've had a very keen interest in the Isle of Man ever since I found out that my 3x great grandmother was born there.  I always thought that she came from Liverpool but when I started tracing her back in time, I noticed that on the census records, it would state that she was born on IOM.  Then I really got lucky and one of them said she was born in Peel.   Her name was Catherine Corlett and she must have been born about 1810-4.  On her marriage certificate, it stated that her father's name was William and he was a weaver.  I'd love to find out more about her family as far back as I can but there are so many Corletts that it is hard to get the families straight.  I imagine the area she grew up in to have a wild beauty.  The whole island sounds like an enchanting place.  I hope that the Manx language makes a resurgence as it saddens me when a language dies. It, along with the other Celtic languages, sound exceedingly hard to learn.  I live in the U.S. and hope one day to visit the IOM and I'm sure it won't disappoint.

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Hullo Elizabeth.... I will repost your message in a new thread to give it its correct connection....

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