Medieval chapel and burial ground, findspot of carved stone cross, holy well.


The Ordnance Survey First Edition 1:2500 map of 1868 records 'Site of Chapel & Burial Ground' with a marker locating the site at SC2000270304. The site lies within a field amalgamated from several smaller plots, two of which (OS Plots 0494 and 0497) were formerly known as Magher y Cabbal (field of the chapel).


Despite the OS' description, substantial remains were still apparent when the Archaeological Commissioners visited in 1878, recording a mass of stone and identifying a carved stone cross (Manx Cross 66). By the mid 1880s, when Canon Savage interviewed the owner, the chapel had been largely cleared, though the site is now uncultivated and gorse-covered.


The extent of the burial ground was evidentally not apparent to the OS, though Savage recorded that graves had been found, particularly to the north and west of the keeill site. The Manx Archaeological Survey (1968) recorded that the then-occupier described frequently hitting large stones when ploughing near the keeill, but had never opened a grave. An area of about 0.3 acres today (2016) lies unploughed and covered in gorse to the north and east of the keeill site; much of the area is a rocky knoll.


The cross discovered loose by the Archaeological Commissioners in 1878 remained on site until 1914, when it was given to the Manx Museum following defacement which consisted of the addition of a fifth cross incised below the others. The original design comprises a cross in low relief, accentuated by square depressions carved between each arm. The cross is further emphasised by small crosslets incised on each arm: it was the modern addition of a fifth cross which led to the stone being placed in the care of the Manx Museum.


A hollowed stone - perhaps a socket stone from the keeill doorway - was also noted by the Commissioners, but was last seen on site in 1886 and is now lost.


A spring, Chibbyrt Baltane, lies about 145m north-west of the keeill site. The Manx Archaeological Survey (1968) noted that it was a celebrated 'rag-well' resorted to by rheumatic sufferers, especially around May Day (the festival is Laa'l Boaldyn in Manx). It is a spring rather than a well, but a rough structure of slabs formerly existed around the point of outflow, with a square slab-lined 'sump' in the middle of the stream. The Survey previously observed and photographed these features in 1927 but could not subsequently trace them in the dense gorse which has since overrun the entire area (and is present still in 2016). The Survey additionally noted that while Savage recorded an old man's memory of a path formerly leading from the keeill to the well, no such route was visible today.


The directions provided by the Survey would suggest that the well lies at c SC19897040.