An Iron Age defended enclosure or "Roundhouse" which is seen to best effect on the Ordnance Survey 1:2500 large scale mapping of 1868, but has since been deminished by ploughing. It is nevertheless still visible in the field as a low, grass-covered circular earthwork platform surrounded by a shallow ditch.
When examined in the 1950s the outer ring of the defences was about 65 metres in diameter. Part of the outer ditch survived and was up to 13.0 metres wide and 0.5 metres deep from its outer lip. There was a fragment of outer bank 4.0 metres wide and 0.3 metres high on the northeastern side of the earthwork. To the southeast, traces of a 20.0 metre length of the inner slope of the original bank survived mid-way between the outer ditch and the central platform but only to a height of 0.1 metres. The circular, central platform had a diameter of 24.0 m and a maximum height of 0.6 metres.
The site has been compared to Ballacagen, but unlike the latter site is not set in a marsh.
The site of an early medieval chapel or keeill, thought to have been in use between AD 500-1000. The chapel is orientated northeast to southwest and is built upon a small hillock. The grass-covered walls include some stones and have been preserved within a pasture field by the farmer. It is shown on the 1869 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey map.
The site was excavated by P.M.C. Kermode in 1910-11. Internally, the chapel measured up to 4 metres long and 3 metres wide. The remains of a window sill were found in the east wall, above the remains of an altar. To the north side of the door through the western wall stood a stone pillar with two large diagonal scores in the middle of one face and three others at the foot. This stone was reportedly brought from the nearby farm and erected here during the 19th century. A fragment of an upper stone of quern was also found.
No surface trace remains of the cemetery enclosure but it is thought to have extended eastward; a human skull was apparently found when the foundations of the present house were dug. Lintel graves have also been noted in the past.
Alleged earthwork and stone circle.
An annotated set of 1:10560 Ordnance Survey maps curated by Manx National Heritage records antiquarian observations of archaeological and landscape features.
Two sites were recorded in OS Field no. 1048, which is centred at the grid reference provided, by PMC Kermode (director of the Manx Museum 1922-32). Kermode placed two crosses in the field, together with the words '?Mound' and 'Circle', without defining which site was which.
Kermode also refers elsewhere (Manx Antiquities, 1930) to Oswald's observation (Vestigia, 1860), of 'a ruin...with a circle of stones at its base' somewhere on Ballachrink farm. The Archaeological Commissioners' report of 1878 refers to a 'circle of stones and near to it, on the west is the tumulus' at Ballachrink farm; Kermode served as one of the commissioners.
Whilst the Commissioners may have been aware of entirely separate remains which were not noted by the OS a decade earlier, it is also possible that observations have partially or completely overlapped and led to duplication. Alternatively, it is feasible that the 'tumulus' referred to by the Commissioners is that recorded by the Ordnance Survey in 1867-8 (PRN 199.20), and that Kermode subsequently used this to place the 'circle of stones' in Field no. 1048 to the east.
No features could be identified by a Royal Commission field inspector in 1955, nor subsequently by staff of Manx National Heritage, at either of the sites marked by Kermode on the annotated map.
Alleged earthwork.
An annotated set of 1:10560 Ordnance Survey maps curated by Manx National Heritage records antiquarian observations of archaeological and landscape features.
Two sites were recorded in OS Field no. 1048 by PMC Kermode (director of the Manx Museum 1922-32). Kermode placed two crosses in the field, together with the words '?Mound' and 'Circle', without defining which site was which. The grid reference provided marks the more westerly location marked by Kermode.
Kermode also refers elsewhere (Manx Antiquities, 1930) to Oswald's observation (Vestigia, 1860), of 'a ruin...with a circle of stones at its base' somewhere on Ballachrink farm. The Archaeological Commissioners' report of 1878 refers to a 'circle of stones and near to it, on the west is the tumulus' at Ballachrink farm; Kermode served as one of the commissioners.
Whilst the Commissioners may have been aware of entirely separate remains which were not noted by the OS a decade earlier, it is also possible that observations have partially or completely overlapped and led to duplication. Alternatively, it is feasible that the 'tumulus' referred to by the Commissioners is that recorded by the Ordnance Survey in 1867-8 (PRN 199.20), and that Kermode subsequently used this to place the 'circle of stones' in Field no. 1048 to the east.
No features could be identified by a Royal Commission field inspector in 1955, nor subsequently by staff of Manx National Heritage, at either of the sites marked by Kermode on the annotated map.
Alleged earthwork and stone circle.
An annotated set of 1:10560 Ordnance Survey maps curated by Manx National Heritage records antiquarian observations of archaeological and landscape features.
Two sites were recorded in OS Field no. 1048 by PMC Kermode (director of the Manx Museum 1922-32). Kermode placed two crosses in the field, together with the words '?Mound' and 'Circle', without defining which site was which. The grid reference provided marks the more easterly location marked by Kermode.
Kermode also refers elsewhere (Manx Antiquities, 1930) to Oswald's observation (Vestigia, 1860), of 'a ruin...with a circle of stones at its base' somewhere on Ballachrink farm. The Archaeological Commissioners' report of 1878 refers to a 'circle of stones and near to it, on the west is the tumulus' at Ballachrink farm; Kermode served as one of the commissioners.
Whilst the Commissioners may have been aware of entirely separate remains which were not noted by the OS a decade earlier, it is also possible that observations have partially or completely overlapped and led to duplication. Alternatively, it is feasible that the 'tumulus' referred to by the Commissioners is that recorded by the Ordnance Survey in 1867-8 (PRN 199.20), and that Kermode subsequently used this to place the 'circle of stones' in Field no. 1048 to the east.
No features could be identified by a Royal Commission field inspector in 1955, nor subsequently by staff of Manx National Heritage, at either of the sites marked by Kermode on the annotated map.
Prehistoric flint scatter.
A small quantity of worked prehistoric flint was recovered from Ballachrink (German) by CH Cowley, in a field he named as 'Bell's Field south of one on Poortown Road Corner'.
The field has not been positively re-indentified, but is likely to be one of several forming the slight hilltop to the north of the farmstead, the grid reference of the latter being provided 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.
Prehistoric flint scatter.
A small quantity of worked prehistoric flint was recovered from Ballachrink (German) by CH Cowley, in a field he named as 'Field west of Bell's Field'.
The field has not been positively re-indentified, but is likely to be one of several forming the slight hilltop to the north of the farmstead, the grid reference of the latter being provided 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 reported site of a Bronze Age burial cist which was shown to Basil Megaw by William Cubbon. Megaw recorded its position on a distribution map of sites he produced in 1937 as site No. 34.
Evidence of a Bronze Age cremation cemetery was found on the site of an early medieval keeill or chapel (PRN 0314.00) excavated by P.M.C. Kermode, circa 1909.
On the south side of Kermode's excavations a small, well-formed cist was found, and in the northwest and northeast areas were further cists with ashes and clay, apparently crushed and dissolved pottery. It appeared certain that the keeill had been erected on the site of a Bronze Age burial place as at Ballingan.
The site of the burial ground associated with an early medieval keeill or chapel which would have been in use during the period circa AD500 to AD1000. It is located in a small field known as the 'Chapel Field' in an extension south of Ballachrink, between the estates of Ballanicholas and Ballacallin. It should not be confused with another keeill site at Ballachrink (PRN 0314.00).
P.M.C. Kermode was refused permission to excavate the site when he visited circa 1909, but he noted that the outline of a rectangular building, measuring approximately 3 metres by 1.8 metres was visible, with the doorway seemingly at the west end. The site was concealed beneath undergrowth but the surrounding enclosure had been ploughed over by that time.
The burial ground associated with an early medieval keeill or chapel which would have been in use during the period circa AD500 to AD1000. The site was marked by an uncultivated plot with some stones and a slight mound visible when visited and excavated by P.M.C. Kermode, circa 1909.
A Neolithic barrow located in the field numbered Plot 1023 on the 1870 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey map. A Neolithic Ronaldsway axehead was found nearby.
The site of a Bronze Age barrow. It consists of a ditchless, grass-covered bowl barrow, 14.0 metres in diameter and about 0.3 metres high. No stones are visible in the mound. The site would appear to have been substantially ploughed down since it was shown on the Ordnance Survey large scale 1:2500 mapping published in 1870, together with the annotation, 'Cairn'.
