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NOTES ON THE STONE MONUMENTS IN THE ISLE OF MAN.
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NOTES ON THE STONE MONUMENTS IN THE ISLE OF MAN.
All the circles mentioned have lost the interior structure. That at Oatlands is an exception, which retains its central chamber. The inner circle of stones, placed near one another, marks the limit of the earn or tumulus. Three stones of the outer circle, placed at greater intervals, still remain. Now these cups, and their developments in the form of circles, are found only in the earlier class of stone monuments, so that there can be little hesitation in assigning the Oatlands group to the earliest period.
The traces of such galleries are very rare in these islands. They are common enough in Brittany. There is a singular group of upright stones at Poortown on the old Peel road, forming a gallery. This gallery, covered with flat stones, was, together with the chamber to which it led, once covered with soil. In the great majority of existing cromlechs, all traces of a gallery conducting to the chamber have long since vanished, but in this instance the chamber has been destroyed, and the gallery left.
The other stone remains visited during the meeting of the Cambrian Association are of the later kind, and must be referred to Scandinavian occupiers of the island. In a field near the Tynwald Mount were three kistvaens, one of which was laid bare by a cutting through the road, and examined during one of the excursions of the week. The group in Kirk Lonan parish, on the Minorca road, between Ramsey and Douglas, is popularly known as King Orry's grave. The name is associated with other places in the island, as at Bishop's Court, where the mediaeval tower is called Orry's tower. Orrisdale is in the same locality. King Orry's son and successor died in 954.
In the cromlech on the mountain near Harlech, associated with the name of Arthur, he noticed that a kistvaen had been placed within the cromlech itself. But such instances are very rare. When Orry's grave was opened, it contained a few human bones, the skeleton of a horse, an iron horse-shoe (now in the possession of Mr. Paul Bridson), and an iron sword, objects which indubitably point to a Scandinavian interment. How the chamber was vaulted is omitted in the account. If the vaulting, so-called, was not effected by stones overlapping one another, but in the usual manner of ordinary vaulting, the monument cannot be of very ancient character. The position of the stones on the mount, as in the Arragon circle, would indicate the structure to be Scandinavian. Local tradition terms it the burial-place of a Welsh prince who reigned on the island between the seventh and eighth centuries. It is more probably the resting-place of a Norseman. Another work is associated with Orry's name, called Castle Chorry, lying still nearer Ramsey.
The large and small kists in the grounds of Orrisdale, have been removed for the sake of security to their present position. Nothing was found in the larger one but a confused entangled mass of vegetable matter containing small white particles, which appear to have come from burnt bone.
Cronk ny Keeillane is on a hill cut through by the high road, near Peel, and has been well described in the appendix to Oswald's Vestigia. The mound was raised originally upon the summit of a rising ground, and has been the nucleus of an important cemetery, as graves have been frequently disturbed by the plough. The kistvaens, that have been opened, are built of thin slabs of slaty rag stones, and are of an humble and meagre character. The bodies appear to have been placed in one uniform position, nearly east and west. The skull, which had been cut through by some trenchant implement, and which was exhibited in the Museum, was taken from one of the kists. An old Treen church stood on the plateau above the graves that were opened, but all traces of its site are gone. Whether the original church preceded or was subsequent to the inter ments, is an interesting point; for if subsequent, it would shew that this spot had been chosen as a cemetery from very early times, although the character of the present graves is somewhat dubious. But whether Christian or not, they may have succeeded still earlier ones; so that, as in the case of Ballamona cemetery, we may have an instance of a cemetery dating from the earliest period to a comparatively recent one.
Connected with the Treen chapel was a Runic cross, never described, which, during a murrain among the cattle of the district, acquired a bad character amongst the natives as being connected with the disease. It was accordingly buried in the ground, and no persuasion to disclose the spot has yet been effective. The man, who did the act, still lives, but keeps the secret,- all the less likely to be known at the time, when the rinderpest existed on the opposite shore. If that plague should ever find its way into the island, perhaps other Runic monuments may disappear.
The other stone remains which exist throughout the island will be probably found to be similar to one or other of the classes here briefly touched upon. St. Patrick's chair, at Magher-y-Chiarn, in Marown Parish, of a somewhat different character, may, perhaps, have been the modern fabrication of a neighbouring farmer, who may have found (if he did not manufacture them) these stones in different spots, and grouped them thus together, either from some whim, or to prevent their interference with his plough.
The use of Flint would long overlap that of Bronze, and it would be unsafe to argue from the presence of Flint and total absence of Bronze implements, that this was a Neolithic monument. In the earliest Bronze Age metal would be of such rarity and value that prudence and economy, as well as ancient custom, would call for the casting away of flint rather than of bronze. The radial chambers can hardly have been otherwise intended than as entrance passages, and yet they are too low and too narrow for actual use; we are led, therefore, to believe that they are, in fact, models, and, that each set of three chambers is, therefore, a model of a passage grave or long barrow. The annular arrangement of cists might belong to Neolithic times, but the passage grave points to a later period and a different people; the practice, also, of cremation, and, above all, the ornamentation of the pottery, point to the first arrival of the Aryans, and we may, therefore, regard this venerable monument as a. relic of the earliest Bronze Age in Man.
