The site of a post-medieval horse engine. The circular horsewalk is shown on the 1870 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey map, but a modern farm building now stands over its location.
Modern watermill and associated water management.
The Ordnance Survey 1:2500 First Edition mapping of 1869 shows a building at the grid reference provided, together with the annotation 'T Mill', denoting a threshing mill. The mill is associated with the small farmstead of Ballacain.
Water for the threshing mill was primarily drawn off the Ballaugh stream along a short 20m leat; a longer 90m tail race returned to the watercourse downstream.
This water supply was presumably inadequate in the summer or during times of heavy use, as extensive arrangements to provide additional power are also shown on the OS mapping. Upstream of the farm, a weir led off water along a second leat, some 70m in length, to a 0.2 acre millpond excavated on the other side of the stream from the farm. Water from the pond must have been fed into the primary leat when required, perhaps by a temporary wooden trough.
The site of the mill is now occupied by a range of more recent agricultural buildings, and the leats and millpond have been infilled. Parts of the tail race are still evident.
Modern watermill.
The Ordnance Survey 1:2500 First Edition mapping of 1869 shows a building at the grid reference provided, together with the annotation 'T Mill', denoting a threshing mill. The mill is associated with the small farmstead of Ballacain.
Water for the threshing mill was primarily drawn off the Ballaugh stream along a short leat; a longer tail race returned to the watercourse downstream. This basic water supply was augmented by a 0.2 acre millpond excavated on the other side of the stream from the farm.
The site of the mill is now occupied by a range of more recent agricultural buildings.
Modern mill leat.
The Ordnance Survey 1:2500 First Edition mapping of 1869 shows a building together with the annotation 'T Mill', denoting a threshing mill. The mill is associated with the small farmstead of Ballacain.
A short, 20m leat provided the primary source of power to the mill (the grid reference relates to the midpoint of its course). No sluice is shown on the mapping, suggesting that it was capable of operating with a minimal water supply, except during summer months or at times of heavy use, when substantial secondary arrangements were brought into use to provide additional power.
The site of the mill is now occupied by a range of more recent agricultural buildings, and the leat has been infilled.
Modern mill tail race.
The Ordnance Survey 1:2500 First Edition mapping of 1869 shows a building together with the annotation 'T Mill', denoting a threshing mill. The mill is associated with the small farmstead of Ballacain.
Waste water from the threshing mill was led along a 90m tail race and returned to the Ballaugh river some distance downstream. The grid reference relates to a point halfway along its course for indicative purposes.
The site of the mill is now occupied by a range of more recent agricultural buildings, and the leats and millpond have been infilled. Parts of the tail race are however still evident.
Modern mill leat.
The Ordnance Survey 1:2500 First Edition mapping of 1869 shows a building together with the annotation 'T Mill', denoting a threshing mill. The mill is associated with the small farmstead of Ballacain.
Water for the threshing mill was primarily drawn off the Ballaugh stream along a short 20m leat. This water supply was presumably inadequate in the summer or during times of heavy use, as extensive arrangements to provide additional power are also shown on the OS mapping.
Upstream of the farm, a weir (located at SC3409094477) led off water along a second leat, some 70m in length, to a 0.2 acre millpond excavated on the other side of the stream from the farm. The grid reference provided marks the midpoint of the leat for indicative purposes.
The site of the mill is now occupied by a range of more recent agricultural buildings, and the leats and millpond have been infilled.
Modern millpond.
The Ordnance Survey 1:2500 First Edition mapping of 1869 shows a building together with the annotation 'T Mill', denoting a threshing mill. The mill is associated with the small farmstead of Ballacain.
Water for the threshing mill was primarily drawn off the Ballaugh stream along a short 20m leat. This water supply was presumably inadequate in the summer or during times of heavy use, and was augmented by extensive arrangements to provide additional power which are also depicted on the OS mapping.
A 0.2 acre millpond (the grid reference marks the centre for indicative purposes) is shown excavated on the other side of the Ballaugh stream opposite the farmstead. The pond was supplied via a 70m leat, led off from the stream by means of a weir. Water from the pond must have been fed into the primary leat when required, perhaps by a temporary wooden trough.
The site of the mill is now occupied by a range of more recent agricultural buildings, and the millpond, together with the leats, has been infilled.
Prehistoric flint scatter.
A small quantity of worked prehistoric flint was recovered from Ballacallin by CH Cowley, from an area he identified as 'Ballacallin Brooghs'.
The quarterland fam of Ballacallin is one field wide at the point at which it meets the coast, and so the location would appear to refer to OS Field no. 0247, which is centred at the grid reference provided.
The antiquary Charles Harry Cowley was an avid collector of worked flint and coarse stone artefacts revealed by agricultural activity, mainly on farms located around Peel, and occasionally from further afield. He was active from 1900 until 1943. His entire collection of artefacts, together with a daybook cataloguing his discoveries, was later donated to Manx National Heritage.
Prehistoric flint scatter.
A single worked prehistoric flint was recovered from Ballacallin by CH Cowley, from a field which he identified as 'Ballacallin Flats'.
The field has not been re-identified and the grid reference relates to (the farmstead) for indicative purposes only.
The antiquary Charles Harry Cowley was an avid collector of worked flint and coarse stone artefacts revealed by agricultural activity, mainly on farms located around Peel, and occasionally from further afield. He was active from 1900 until 1943. His entire collection of artefacts, together with a daybook cataloguing his discoveries, was later donated to Manx National Heritage.
The findspot of a Mesolithic flint scatter recorded by Cowley and now held at the Manx Museum. It includes a scrapers, arrowheads, a chisel and ornamentor. The findspots of these artefacts are not clearly documented and come from one of the farms known as Ballacallin in the parish.
The site of a mound of unknown significance. Pieces of white quartz and large stones are visible in the body of the mound but it is not known if it is an archaeological monument such as a prehistoric barrow. It was examined by Dr Larch S. Garrad in 1985 after the crop had been cleared from the field, but no conclusion was reached as to the origin of the mound.
The findspot of a Mesolithic flint scatter found by Mr Alan Skillan during fieldwalking. The collection consisted of flint flakes and blades, including 'Bann or Heavy-blade type pieces, and a "slate rod".
The findspot of a Mesolithic flint scatter. The collection consisted of flint flakes and blades, including 'Bann or Heavy-blade type pieces, and a "slate rod".
The Ballacamish Hoard is a Viking age find of a silver armlet and neck-rings, found by labourers digging in a marl pit at Ballacamaish in 1868. The original pieces are kept in the British Museum, which bought them in 1870.
The silver neckring was made of four plaited wires with a hooked, triangular terminal punched with circles. The terminal was detached from the rest of the ring. A fragment of a second neck-ring was also found, also made from four pairs of twisted rods. The penannular silver arm-ring was made from three twisted rods, with truncated, knob-shaped terminals.
Viking Age coinhoard.
A hoard of 237 silver coins (four of them fragments) was found in May 1786, and surrendered to the Manx Exchequer in September of that year by the Duke of Athol's seneschal, Peter Heywood, as treasure trove.
The same number of coins was referred to by J Feltham in his Tour (1798), with the additional information that the discovery was made in the parish of Lonan. This has subsequently been further focussed on Ballacannell, although the precise findspot remains unknown.
Ballacannell was a quarterland farmholding lying just to the south of the modern parish church. The grid reference relates to the old Ballacannell farmstead, now demolished.
The coins are now lost, but are thought to have represented a hoard of mainly Hiberno-Norse silver pennies, deposited in about 1030. Mention of a rather square coin is thought to indicate the presence of a silver denier from Rouen.
Bronze Age pottery.
A bipartite Bronze Age urn was found in 1905 on Ballacannell farm, about 400m SE of Lonan parish church, close to the main road leading to Laxey.
PMC Kermode (director of the Manx Museum 1922-32) recorded the discovery of the pot (1930) and marks the findspot a little to the north of the Wesleyan Methodist chapel on his annotated OS map of antiquarian discoveries and observations. The grid reference provided reflects Kermode's annotation.
The Revd Canon J Quine recorded that the urn was found at 'an altitude of 330 foot at 2 foot below the surface from an outcrop in gravelly sub-soil, supported by a scrap of slate'. It was also reported that the pot was resting on another slab of stone.
No trace of a burial mound or cist was noted at the time of the discovery, and no such feature has subsequently been recognised in the locality.
The pot is in the Manx Museum collections, accession no. 1954-1650.
