From the strength and height of the embankments, they seem to have been intended for defensive purposes, and are probably a later addition to the churchyard, the work of the Pagan Norsemen when in possession of this Isle. This was the church built by St. Maughold on the headland near Ramsey bearing his name. The existing plateau contains three acres of ground, and originally must have been much larger, as only a segment of it now remains, having the shape of the letter R. It differed from its Irish archetypes in being surrounded by a double circumvallation, and in having the cemetery within the enclosure.

The churches of the fifth century were called Cabbals. The cabbal is an earthen structure, quadrangular in form, of very small dimensions, and rarely exceeds twelve feet in length, by nine in breadth. The walls of the cabbal are low, pyramidal in form, and of great width at base. And now come to a better class of buildings denominated Keills, introduced about the middle of the sixth. These churches are of two kinds: one built wholly of stone, and the other of a mixture of sods and stones. They are larger than the cabbals, and measure from fifteen to twenty feet length by twelve in breadth, but rarely exceed these dimensions.

Rude stone vessels called FONTS are sometimes found within them, and occasionally a quadrangular recess is observed in the east wall. Like the cabbal, the keeill also stands upon artificially raised ground, is rectangular in form, and altogether better built than the former. The mode of construction of the keeill was similar to the cabbal. The following account given by Bede of the building of St. Cuthbert's Church, Lindisfarn, in 684
	The annexed view of the ruins of St. Lingan's Treen Keeill and enclosure, Marown, will give the reader a correct idea of one of these old places of worship. It is situated on the Ballingan estate adjoining Ballaguinney, about a mile and a quarter from the Peel Road, and is one of the best specimens existing of our insular keeills. The enclosure in which stands the keeill is one hundred and eight feet long by sixty-three feet broad.