Dr Bradbury reported a stone circle, two-thirds destroyed with the stones used in fences. He may have noted this now lost feature when working with the Canon Quine, who excavated the Hairdwillagh Burial Mound in the area in 1924.
Late/Post medieval gun battery. The round, or 'Half Moon' battery was built during the reign of Henry VIII. It originally provided two embrasures for cannon (one of which was reconstructed in the 19th century in the wrong position). It was intended to protect the mouth of Peel harbour, though it may never have been particularly effective.
Over 2000 Mesolithic flint flakes were found in a small pit underneath the Half-Moon Battery during excavations by Gelling in 1982. Analysis of these by R. Smart revealed that they had Pennine affinities rather than the expected Irish or “Bann” type. They form a very restricted range of types and appeared to indicate a somewhat impoverished occupation site.
The names of 7 crew members are then listed, followed by the name of the child. Second World War. The memorial is a stone wall on which three black marble plaques are affixed. The central plaque is engraved with Candian flags. There is an area underneath the central plaque where wreaths of poppies can be hung.
The memorial was unveiled by Deemster M. Kerruish on 7 October 2006 and dedicated by the Reverend Bill Martin, Vicar of Laxey. The memorial was funded by members of the Laxey Branch of the Royal British Legion.
A post-medieval bridge at Lower Foxdale. The Rev. J.G. Cumming, in "The Isle of Man" in 1848 recorded that: "A little lower down by the road-side near Hamilton bridge is a very pretty waterfall, which in rainy weather pours down a full torrent some thirty feet over a ledge of clay-schist into a wooded hollow. Hence the valley downwards is of a very fine character, and becomes more and more impressive as we descend. It is refreshing after the desolate, treeless wildness of the granite district, to look upon such a rich combination of wood, water and rock, valley and fell, which here presents itself before us."
Second World War. Slate plaque engraved with RAF emblem. Affixed to the gable wall of Ballaragh Farmhouse. The plaque was unveiled by Air Vice Marshall Ian McFadyen (then Lieutenant Governor of the Island) with a very moving tribute to the difficulties faced by young airmen equipped with the low-tech navigational aids of the time. Ft Lt R. Savage (a resident of Ballaragh) was in attendance, aged 80, having himself trained on Hampdens during the Second World War.
The Castle Rushen Papers contain a document dated 1627 which records the locations of watch stations around the Isle of Man from which a coastal look-out was kept.
The site of the night watch-station for the parish of Lezayre was at 'Hangman's Hill', which is believed to refer to Vowlan. The coastline of Lezayre is quite short, and this is probably the only location suitable for the Night Watch. Bersu's interpretation as a raiding party's defence is based on rather outdated views of Viking activity in the Irish Sea from the late 8th century onwards, and it would seem more appropriate to see the site as performing a function associated with policing the coastline and perhaps also overseeing beach markets.
Defended promontory. Earthwork remains survive on a raised rocky triangular promontory on south side of the narrow channel between St Michael's Isle and Langness.
The interior is surrounded by a bank except for a 20m strip to the south east. A pathway to the entrance is grooved with shallow steps cut into a natural shelf in the rock. This may also have served as a slipway for small boats. The entrance takes the form of a scooped hollow through the bank, 4m wide at the base and 9m wide across the top. The scooping of the entrance continues well into the interior of the fort.
The strength of the perimeter bank is variable, in some places surviving to maximal widths of 4 to 6m and heights of 1.1 to 1.6m above the interior. Elsewhere it is weaker and more fragmentary with an average width of 1.5m and an average height of 0.4m. No outer ditch is necessary and there is no visible trace of internal structures.
Limited excavation in 2000 recovered gorse charcoal dated to the 11th and 13th centuries. This may represent the firepit of a beacon serving as part of a watch and ward system of coastal defence.
The prominence of Hango Hill itself suggests a potential origin as a prehistoric burial mound. The original date and form of the mound is unknown, but the recovery of a bronze flat axe (see record 0085) implies a possible Bronze Age date.
An Early Bronze Age flat axehead was exposed by marine erosion at Hango Hill in 1847. The Manx Liberal newspaper of 24th April reported, "An ancient bronze celt, found at Hango Hill, near Castletown, after the late incursion of the sea, has been presented by Mr John McGhie, brass founder, to J.R. Wallace, for the Cumberland Museum."
The axe was subsequently transferred, along with other Manx items in the Wallace Collection, to the Manx Museum. It is now part of the Manx National Heritage collections, accession no 1954-0794.
The prominence of Hango Hill itself suggests a potential origin as a prehistoric burial mound (see also PRN 0031); it has since been used as a Medieval burial mound, an execution site, as the foundation for a banquetting hall, and as a gun battery.
A hall was built on the summit of Hango Hill by the earls of Derby in the years following the execution of William Christian in 1663. The hall was about 10m in length, but now only about a third survives following the erosion of the coastline.
Early drawings show a building with battlements, and it has been referred to as a 'blockhouse'; it seems however only ever to have served as a banqueting hall and a summerhouse, and it was associated with horseracing organised by the Earls along the dunes to the east onto Langness - the first 'Derby' races.
An unknown number of burials were recorded in the eroding coastal face of the mound prior to the construction of the protective sea wall. Local tradition averred that these were the victims of executions, but it has been suggested that the site might have served as a medieval burial ground.
The name Hango Hill may have its origins in the Old Norse for 'hanging hill', implying that the site was used as a place of execution in the medieval period. Nevertheless, the site is most well-known as the place where William Christian was executed in 1663 for his part in surrendering the Royalist-held Island to Parliamentary forces in 1651.
A battery of four small cannon is recorded as present on Hango Hill in the later 17th century but had fallen into decay in the first half of the following century. It is difficult to see how these might have been accommodated on the present summit of the hill, especially as the banqueting hall was already present, and it may be that the open ground immediately to either side of the hill itself actually provided an emplacement for the battery.
The site of a promontory fort which was thought to be of possible early medieval or Viking origin. A later fort was said to have been built by Captain John Hanmer, a Governor of the Isle of Man, in 1575 and rebuilt in 1689. The site has been lost to coastal erosion in the 20th century.
Medieval carved stone cross.
The site was investigated by the Manx Archaeological Survey (1915). A carved stone cross (Manx Cross 142) was recovered, re-used in a lintel grave, on the south side of the keeill.
The findspot of a cross-slab with a Celtic cross carved on each face, along with a ship drawing and a Runic inscription. It was found in a lintel grave before 1915. The slab measures 76 centimetres x 30 centimetres x 6.4 centimetres and is kept in the Maughold Cross House.
This broken slab was found in the corner of the north keeill beyond the present parish church where it had been used, already broken, in a lintel grave.
Both faces bore a cross without a circle, most of which is now lost. There is minimal decoration, restricted to a cable-moulded border around the outline of both crosses and a rather inelegant step-pattern on both shafts. Below the right arm on one face is the only sculpted example in the Isle of Man of a Viking ship. The ship is quite well observed, so that the clinker construction of its hull can be seen, together with the standing rigging, the furled sail, and the steering oar. The panel to the left of the cross shaft bears a runic inscription which has been translated as, 'Hedin set this cross to the memory of his daughter Hlif.' A number of other runes have been added as graffiti.
On the other face, a short inscription up the right side of the shaft translates as 'Arni carved these runes.' Additional runes have been lightly scratched in parallel to this inscription as graffiti.
A slab with Celtic cross carved on each face, with ship drawing and Runic inscription. It was found in a North Keeill lintel grave before 1915 and is now kept in the Maughold Cross House. It measures 76 centimetres x 28 centimetres x 6.5 centimetres thick.
