When the buried soils beneath Cronk Mooar burial mound, 1069.00, were excavated in 1945, six infilled post holes and shallow depressions were found to the north and northeast of the grave. These were thought to be associated with the flints and eroded prehistoric pottery found here and interpreted as the remains of a Neolithic settlement site.
In the south part of this area, were a series of plough marks and a probable field boundary scratched into the untouched soil; in three places these cut through the earlier post holes. The plough marks and field-boundary ran parallel to the existing land division and were regarded as Viking, 1069.30. Finds from the excavations are kept in the Manx Museum.
The site of a Bronze Age bowl barrow. The site has been ploughed over but survives as a grass-covered, ditchless mound measuring 31 metres in diameter and up to 0.8 metres high. In the past, several urns have been found at this mound, exposed by ploughing.
The site of an early medieval chapel or keeill and its associated burial ground, which are thought to date to the period AD500 to AD1000.
Two fragments of granite quern-stones have been found here as well as two boulders with incised linear crosses (Manx Cross No 13 and Manx Cross No 16) which are now kept in Jurby church, with casts kept in the Manx Museum. They are pre-Viking in date.
The site of an early medieval chapel or keeill and its associated burial ground, which are thought to date to the period AD500 to AD1000.
Two fragments of granite quern-stones have been found here as well as two boulders with incised linear crosses (Manx Cross No 13 and Manx Cross No 16) which are now kept in Jurby church, with casts kept in the Manx Museum. They are pre-Viking in date.
This cross slab is one of a group dating to the 6th to 12th centuries AD which have been found at or near St Patrick's church, Jurby.
It is a flat water-worn boulder with cross incised on one face. It measures 37 centimetres by 16.5 centimetres by 5 centimetres. It is kept in the north porch of Jurby Church and a cast is kept in the Manx Museum.
This cross slab is one of a group dating to the 6th to 12th centuries AD which have been found at or near St Patrick's church, Jurby.
It is a small boulder with a plain cross incised on one face. It measures 30.5 centimetres by 22 centimetres by 13.3 centimetres. It is kept in the north porch of Jurby Church and a cast is kept in the Manx Museum.
Cronk ny Arrey Laa ('Hill of the Day Watch') is a 437-metre hill in the island's south-west, the second-highest in that part of the Isle of Man after South Barrule, whose steep western face plunges directly into the sea in a dramatic cliff. Its name recalls its use as a Viking-era lookout post watching for raiders approaching by sea; it is also the highest point on the Raad ny Foillan coastal footpath, a stretch Manx National Heritage calls 'amongst the most spectacular to be seen anywhere in the British Isles.' Carnivorous sundew plants grow on its boggy slopes, and nearby lie the ruins of an ancient keeill and burial ground at Lag ny Keeilley, used for burials until around 1800. Local folklore also credits the summit's daybreak light with signalling herring fishermen to shoot their nets (confirmed via Manx Notes and Queries, 1904); a separate tale of a giant hurling standing stones is often linked to this hill but per A.W. Moore's own Folk-lore of the Isle of Man (1891) actually belongs to Balla Keeill Pherick near Colby, a different location with similar terrain.
A cairn marking a large burial mound situated on the summit of the hill. The centre of the cairn stands to a considerable height. Kerb stones set on edge are traceable in places around the circumference of the mound.
The cairn has not been excavated but is probably early Bronze Age or late Neolithic in date.
The name means 'Hill of the Watch by Day' or 'Hill of the Day-Watch' and the hilltop would have been one of several medieval or early post-medieval watch and ward posts placed at strategic points round the island. Every coastal parish had at least one 'hill of the day-watch' and 'port of the night-watch'.
This is the site of a modern aviation radio direction beacon, operated by National Air Traffic Services. The site has been used since the 1950s for radio beacons providing navigation information for civil aircraft.
The Ordnance Survey 1:10560 scale mapping published in 1958 shows a central mast next to a technical building, around which four more masts are marked to the NW, NE, SE and SW, at a distance of approximately 80 m. The concrete foundation pads of the northerly masts have been removed, but the southern pair survive. The historical mapping bears the annotation, 'Automatic Wireless Transmitting Direction-finding Station (Aircraft) (Min[istry] of Trans[port] & Civ[il] Av[iation])'.
The mast array was for many years replaced by a low-level arrangement known locally as the 'Bandstand', which itself is in the process of being partially dismantled and replaced (as of 2021).
The cropmark of a feature described as a "double-ring" seen to the south of a gully in the 1970s and thought to possibly represent an Iron Age roundhouse. No further information is available at present.
Medieval burial mound.
This well-preserved burial mound stands in a prominent location on the coast. Coastal erosion is likely to have brought the mound closer to the shore than when it was originally created, but the surviving topography would suggest that it was designed to be visible from out to sea, and it bears direct comparison with nearby excavated sites such as Ballateare and Cronk Mooar, and disturbed examples such as that within Jurby churchyard.
The sharply defined outline of the mound, which is 19m in diameter and 3.5m high, would tend to confirm its medieval, rather than prehistoric, origins.
The mound is locally known as Cronk ny Arrey Lhaa, or 'hill of the daytime watch', for which purpose it could have served well. A document dated to 1627 and contained within the Castle Rushen Papers, however, states that the day and nightime coastal watches were by then kept from Knockmore (now Cronk Mooar) 1200m to the south-west.
The mound is known as Cronk ny Arrey Lhaa, or 'hill of the daytime watch', for which purpose it could have served well. A document dated 1627 and contained within the Castle Rushen Papers, however, states that the day and nightime coastal watches were by then kept from Knockmore (now Cronk Mooar) 1200m to the south-west. It is not impossible that the site may have served this purpose during medieval times before being superseded by Cronk Moar.
The site of a Bronze Age barrow, which survives as a ditchless, gorse and fern covered bowl barrow with diameter of 12.0 metres and height of 1.4 metres. It has several stones, some of them quartz, exposed on the mound. A second barrow lies 50 metres to the northeast (PRN 0532.00). The barrow is shown as a Tumulus on the 1870 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey map.
Cronk ny Keeill Bouyr means the Mound of Keeill Bouyr (Mound of the Chapel of the Deaf).
Defended promontory. When first surveyed by the Ordnance Survey in 1868, the most obvious features on the site were the large, grass-covered bank, standing 3.5m high and 5m wide, and the less substantial remains of a rectangular building behind it on the promontory. The scale of the bank led to an assumption that it represented a prehistoric burial mound, a belief compounded by its name, which translates as 'hill of the dead'.
Excavation in 1950-51 found that the promontory had first been protected by a timber stockade, which was later replaced by a timber-reinforced earthen rampart. A ditch had also been excavated in front of the bank, to a depth of about 1m below modern ground-level; the ditch was spanned by a causeway at the west end to allow access to the headland. The rampart was further augmented by a timber platform, or raised walkway.
The defensive site so created was considered to be of Iron Age character, though no features of this period were identified within the site. Several residual finds, however, confirm an Iron Age presence.
The interior of the headland is now dominated by a later longhouse which is likely to have disturbed or destroyed most traces of earlier occupation. The longhouse measures 13.5m by 7.5m, with earthen walls 1.5m thick faced inside and out in stone. The walls originally stood to a height of around 1.5m, and probably supported a pitched roof. Two doorways are located opposite each other near the west end, and low stone benches run along both of the long walls and across the western gable. There was little evidence of domestic activity, only rather basic remains of a hearth, and no domestic rubbish. The form of the building thus conforms to a domestic Viking longhouse, while the excavated evidence suggests that it was not permanently occupied.
Several other defended promontories (Cass ny Hawin, Close ny Chollagh and Borrane) have similar buildings within their ramparts, leading to the suggestion that existing promontory forts were reused as part of a 'watch and ward' system of coastal defence and perhaps also to police beach markets.
No dating evidence was found during the excavations but in 1970, a half-penny of Edward I, dating 1280-81, was found in the back-fill of the dig and presumably indicates some occupation of the site after the end of Norse rule on the Island in 1265.
Defended promontory.
When first surveyed by the Ordnance Survey in 1868, the most obvious features on the site were the large, grass-covered bank, standing 3.5m high and 5m wide, and the less substantial remains of a rectangular building behind it on the promontory. The scale of the bank led to an assumption that it represented a prehistoric burial mound, a belief compounded by its name, which translates as 'hill of the dead'.
Excavation in 1950-51 found that the promontory had first been protected by a timber stockade, which was later replaced by a timber-reinforced earthen rampart. A ditch had also been excavated in front of the bank, to a depth of about 1m below modern ground-level; the ditch was spanned by a causeway at the west end to allow access to the headland. The rampart was further augmented by a timber platform, or raised walkway.
The defensive site so created was considered to be of Iron Age character, though no features of this period were identified within the site. Several residual finds, however, confirm an Iron Age presence.
Medieval longhouse.
When first surveyed by the Ordnance Survey in 1868, the most obvious features on the site were the large, grass-covered bank, standing 3.5m high and 5m wide, and the less substantial remains of a rectangular building behind it on the promontory.
The interior of the headland is now dominated by a later longhouse which is likely to have disturbed or destroyed most traces of earlier occupation. The longhouse measures 13.5m by 7.5m, with earthen walls 1.5m thick faced inside and out in stone. The walls originally stood to a height of around 1.5m, and probably supported a pitched roof. Two doorways are located opposite each other near the west end, and low stone benches run along both of the long walls and across the western gable. There was little evidence of domestic activity, only rather basic remains of a hearth, and no domestic rubbish. The form of the building thus conforms to a domestic Viking longhouse, while the excavated evidence suggests that it was not permanently occupied.
No dating evidence was found during the excavations but in 1970, a half-penny of Edward I, dating 1280-81, was found in the back-fill of the dig and presumably indicates some occupation of the site after the end of Norse rule on the Island in 1265.
Medieval watch place.
The excavated evidence suggests that the site was not permanently occupied during the medieval period.
Several other defended promontories (Cass ny Hawin, Close ny Chollagh and Borrane) have similar buildings within their ramparts, leading to the suggestion that existing promontory forts were reused as part of a 'watch and ward' system of coastal defence and perhaps also to police beach markets.
Cronk ny Merriu ('hill of the dead') is an Iron Age promontory fort overlooking Port Grenaugh near Santon, first defended by a timber stockade and later rebuilt with an earthen rampart, ditch, and raised timber walkway. Norse settlers later reused the site, building a rectangular longhouse as part of a coastal lookout network; excavation in 1950-52 found little evidence of everyday domestic life, suggesting it served primarily a defensive or watch function. No dating evidence was recovered for the longhouse itself, though a halfpenny of Edward I (1280-81) found in the backfill suggests activity continuing after Norse rule ended in 1265. The Norse building's design informed reconstructions at the House of Manannan museum in Peel.
The findspot of an early prehistoric flint scatter. Mesolithic Heavy-blade or Bann type material has been found in this area on separate occasions. They include a single 'Bann' missile head (Manx Museum Accession No. 1954-1148/317) as well as a stray 'Bann' flake from the Cronk ny Merriu excavation (Manx Museum Accession No. 1971-0016/17).
The conjectured site of an undated fort based on the identification of a "broad wall" on an annotated 1:10560 map. No evidence of such a fortification has been recorded.