Ballaugh Old Church, dedicated to St Mary de Ballaugh, stands at The Cronk, about 1.5 miles north of the present village, on a site first recorded in a Papal Bull of 1231 and, like other ancient Manx parish churches, almost certainly the successor to earlier Celtic and Norse churches. The church holds an 11th-century Runic Cross, the only one found in Ballaugh, showing the hand of the noted sculptor Gaut, with weathered runic lettering commemorating "Ouliabr Loitulfsunr" in memory of his son Ulb. In 1717, Bishop Thomas Wilson had the church lengthened by 21 feet and gave it a simple baroque west front topped with a bell-cote. In 1877 the grave of a young chieftain, predating the arrival of Christianity on the Island by centuries, was uncovered about 100 yards east of the churchyard wall. The church now standing dates from a rebuilding in 1832, after the parish's active worship moved to the newer church in Ballaugh village.