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CELTS IN MANNPRESENTS

PUBLISHED BY MANX NATIONAL HERITAGE 1997 & 2003COPYRIGHT © MANX NATIONAL HERITAGE

ISBN 0 901106 39 9

ContentsPage 2. Celtic Places &

People in Mann

Page 6. Celtic Forts

Page 11. Celtic Farmhouses

Page 13. Celtic Food& Farms

Page 16. Celtic Clothes& Jewellery

Page 19. Celtic Crafts& Trades

Page 21. Celtic Beliefs

Page 25. Celtic Stories

Page 27. Celtic Christians

Page 32. Celtic Legacy

Page 36. Glossary

The Celts were the first people to live inthe Isle of Man who left signs which tell usabout the names they gave to places andpeople.

Celts also lived in Ireland and they help usto know about life here as they spoke thesame language.

Some of these Irish Celts wrote storieswhich mention the Isle of Man. To them itwas a special place they knew about, butmost of them had never seen.

Today we know the Island as the Isle ofMan, and this word comes from a very oldCeltic word Mon, which means Mountain.

If you come by boat towards the Isle ofMan, the first thing you notice as youcome closer is the range of hills, highabove sea level.

On a good day you can see them fromparts of England, Scotland, Ireland andeven Wales, although it’s a bit fartheraway.

Although the Romans didn’t come to settlein the Isle of Man, they certainly knewabout it. Julius Caesar referred to theIsland as Mona, but the Romanssometimes also gave this name to theIsland of Anglesey, off the North-Westcoast of Wales.

A few places on the Island still keep theearly names they were given by the Celts,although usually the spelling is a bitdifferent today.

Parts of the landscape which are verynoticeable, like hills, rocks, rivers andstreams sometime have their early names.

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Celtic Places& People in Mann

The Isle of Man from the sea

Some of the higher hills are called‘slieau’, another Celtic word for mountain,while the lower ones are often called‘cronk’.

Another word for a high place is ‘ard’ andsome places like Cashtal yn Ard inMaughold are on high ground, with a goodview on all round.

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Celtic Places & People in Mann

Slieau Dhoo. Michael Cashtal yn Ard, Maughold

Cronk ny Irree Laa, Rushen

There are lots of rivers and streams, butvery few of them still have their Celticnames. One place which does is GlenAuldyn just outside Ramsey. It still has themountain stream rushing down the steepvalley which gave its name hundreds ofyears ago.

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Celtic Places & People in Mann

Douglas, the capital, also keeps its oldname as the two Celtic words ‘doo’ and‘glais’ join together to mean ‘blackstream’.

As well as the places, we know the namesof some Celtic people which are foundcarved on memorial stones. Some ofthese had writing in an alphabet called‘ogham’ which was also used by Celts inother places, especially Ireland. Thesestones tell us some of the Celts’ ownnames.

One stone is broken, but still has thewords CUNAMAGL MA on it. This tells usit was the stone for the grave ofCunamaglos, but there is only part of thesecond word MAQI which means son of.

Today Cunamaglos’ name has been alteredand has probably become the Manxsurname Cannell.

We use Mac or Mc at the beginning of someIrish and Scots surnames where it still means son of.

The other way we can find out about someof the Celts’ names is by reading Old Irishstories.

Although they were written later thanany events they describe they giveus a good idea of how the Celtsimagined their gods and howthey thought about Paradise.

Although Inis Manann is Irishfor the Isle of Man the storiesalso called it Tír na nOg, theLand of Youth, and theydescribed Manannánas being the God of this Otherworld acrossthe sea, where Celticheroes went afterdeath.

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Celtic Places & People in Mann

Manannan

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The summit of South Barrule is 483metres high, yet on it there are theremains of over seventy round stonewalled huts. Exposed to wind and rain andsometimes covered in mist or low cloud,it’s not the kind of place you would expectpeople to choose to live.

The one good point about the hilltop is thatit’s easy to defend, and whoever livedthere built extra defences, so thatattackers, already tired after a long climb,would be deterred from trying to take thesettlement by force.

To find out why people lived on SouthBarrule we have to go back in time at least2,500 years, to around 500 B.C.

The people who lived then knew how tomake tools and weapons from copper andbronze, as well as from stone.

On such a high, bleak hilltop they wouldnot have been able to grow grain crops,although they could store them, but theywould have kept animals.

They would be able to control the south ofthe Island from here.

Celtic Forts

The summit of South Barrule View from southern plain to South Barrule summit

At that time the climate was growing coolerand wetter, and the lower fertile cropgrowing farm land was in great demand.Even this good land was producing lessand less food. This may have led to anunsettled time when families needed todefend the land they already owned, andwhen the stronger families would try totake more of the better land forthemselves.

There are certainly bronze swords andspearheads from that time. It may be thatpeople who had shared land before werenow fighting over it among themselves, butit was also a time when new people weremoving in to settle in many parts of Britain.

These newcomers knew how to make theirtools and weapons from another, strongermetal - iron. Iron ore is common and isfound in the Isle of Man as well as in manyother places. The problem is that itrequires great heat in a special furnace tosmelt it before it can be used. Thenewcomers could do this, but the peoplealready here could not. It is quite likely thatthese people needed to defendthemselves against the new people, whomwe know as the Celts.

On South Barrule the main defencesurrounding the huts was a rampart, orbank, made of turf and faced with stoneslabs outside. The hilltop is rocky and itwould be impossible to dig a ditch outsidethe rampart. Instead a 2 metre wide belt offour or fives lines of timber posts withsharp pointed ends was placed in front ofit, looking rather like a large wooden spinyhedgehog. Inside the defences the peoplecooked their food on hearths in the hutsand they left pottery there which is verylike some pots from this time found inother places on the Island.

Later they built another rampart whichenclosed more of the summit, but theydidn’t build any more huts.

All we can tell today is that the people whofirst built the fort were not newcomers tothe Island, and that it must have beengreat danger that caused them to live onthe top of South Barrule.

In the north of the Island at Sulby is CronkSumark, a steep hillock, separate from themain range of hills, which overlooks theflat land of the northern plain. Today thatland is flat and fertile, but around 2000years ago it was very water-logged, withmarshes and lakes, and only a few‘islands’ which were of dry land. On twosides Cronk Sumark is so steep that itdoesn’t need any extra defences to makeit safe from attack, but it has stone and turframparts to defend the other sides wherethe slope is gentler. Cronk Sumark is muchsmaller than South Barrule and wasprobably occupied by fewer people. Wecannot be sure exactly how they livedthere because the hillock seems to havebeen used again more recently, damagingthe earlier remains.

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Celtic Forts

Cronk Sumark

AN ISLAND FORT

About the same time there was asettlement on St. Patrick’s Isle at Peelwhere archaeologists found round timberframed houses. Some of the buildings hadbeen replaced at least six times whichshows that the village was there forhundreds of years altogether. One of thebiggest huts had been used to store grain.St. Patrick’s Isle is very exposed to theweather, just like South Barrule, but it wasa safe place too, because it wassurrounded by sea.

It seems that the people there used it as aplace to store the grain which was grownon the more fertile land round about Peel.So far we don’t know whether the peoplethere built a rampart or not. They mayhave felt safe enough living on their Island.

PROMONTORY FORTS

A promontory is usually where a piece ofland juts out to the sea, so that three sidesof it are surrounded by water. The fortswere built mainly on high cliffs.Occasionally forts were built away from thesea, but still on a high piece of land juttingout into a valley.

The Manx promontory forts were built laterthan the hill forts and were used during thetime when the Roman Empire had takenover more countries in Europe, includingEngland and Wales in Britain. Once againthey were built to give protection indangerous times, although the danger wasfrom different people. Once the Romanshad settled in these other parts of Britainthey left the Isle of Man alone, but they stillhad trouble with tribes in Scotland andIreland and the Irish Sea area saw lots ofraids from Ireland into Roman Britain.

The four promontory forts which we knowmost about were built in the South andSouth East of the Island, although thereare about twenty which archaeologistshave not looked at yet. They are smallforts and they all have ramparts of earth,or earth and stone, with deep ditchesoutside on the landward side of the fort.Enemies would find it too difficult to attackthe fort directly from the sea and would tryto capture the fort by landing somewhereeasier and moving round to attack from theland.

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Celtic Forts

St. Patrick’s Isle in the Iron Age

Cronk ny Merriu Fort (the rectangular houseremains inside the fort are later)

At Cronk ny Merriu in Santon the ditchlooks quite shallow now, but it was muchdeeper when it was dug out over 2000years ago. Just inside the earth rampartthere was a row of closely packed woodenposts supporting a wooden walkway whichwas high enough for defenders to see overthe rampart. There was only one weakplace and that was probably blocked by aheavy wooden gateway. A later Vikinghouse was built inside the fort, whichmakes it difficult to know about the housesof the Celtic people who built the rampart,ditch and wooden stockade.

A little further down the coast from Cronkny Merriu is another very similar fort atCass ny Hawin in Malew. it was also re-used later for a Viking house.

Near Scarlett in Malew is a Celtic fort atClose ny Chollagh. It’s at sea level,although the shore is very rocky. Therewere at least four small stone walled roundhouses inside the rampart and ditch.Because the stone there is limestone, thestones for the rampart wall could beshaped easily and have lasted very well.People were living there just after the birthof Christ.

Well away from the sea is a fort atBallanicholas by the Santon Burn inMarown. Its small timber framed roundhouse was up on a steep grass bank, withmarshy land round it. There wasn’t evenenough room for a path right round thehouse. On the side where the ditch hadbeen dug, the house’s timber wall wasprotected outside by a bank of clay, sothere was no room at all there for a path. If there was a farmyard, it must have beendown on the flatter ground. The peoplewho lived at Ballanicholas left very littlethere, except a bronze brooch which tellsus the house was lived in about the sametime as the houses at Close ny Chollagh.

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Celtic Forts

Looking from Close ny Chollagh over to Port St.Mary

Bronze penannular brooch from Close ny Chollagh

CELTIC FORTS ON THE ISLE OF MAN

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Celtic Forts

Type Name Description Excavation details

HILL SOUTH BARRULE ‘MANNANAN’S CASTLE’ 1960-1 (P.S. GELLING)MALEW SC 258759 LATE BRONZE AGE/

EARLY IRON AGE FORT

HILL CRONK SUMARK TWIN PEAKED HILLOCK, CITADEL NOTHING TO DATELEZAYRE SC 392941 AND TWO OUTER RAMPARTS,

ONE VITRIFIED IN PLACES,PROBABLY IRON AGE

HILL CASTLEWARD PRIVATE LAND NOTHING TO DATEBRADDAN ISOLATED ROCKY HILLOCK,

CITADEL AND DEFENSIVE RAMPARTS,VITRIFIED IN PLACES

HILL BALLADOOLE IRON AGE FORT, STONE RAMPART 1945-6 (G. BERSU)ARBORY SC 246682 ENCLOSING WHOLE OF FLATTISH 1974 (J.R. BRUCE)

OVAL SUMMIT

ISLAND ST. PATRICK’S ISLE IRON AGE SETTLEMENT 1982-8 (D. FREKE)GERMAN SC 242846 NO KNOWN RAMPARTS

BUT POSSIBLE DEFENCESON EAST SIDE OF ISLET

PROMONTORY CRONK NY MERRIU DITCH, RAMPART TO LANDWARD 1950-2 (P.S. GELLING)SANTON SC 317704

PROMONTORY CASS NY HAWIN DITCH, RAMPART TO LANDWARD 1957 (P.S. GELLING)MALEW SC 298692

PROMONTORY CLOSE NY CHOLLAGH DITCH, RAMPART TO LANDWARD 1953-6 (P.S. GELLING)MALEW SC 246671 FOUR IRON AGE ROUND HOUSES

PROMONTORY BURROO NED RAMPART TO LANDWARD NOTHING TO DATERUSHEN SC 177665 ENCLOSING HOUSE FOUNDATIONS

PROMONTORY BALLANICHOLAS PRIVATE LAND 1957-9 (P.S. GELLING)MAROWN INLAND PROMONTORY FORT,

ON SPUR ABOVE MARSHY VALLEY,DITCH RAMPART ON ONEVULNERABLE SIDE,SMALL ROUND TIMBERFRAMED HOUSE

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Some Celtic farm houses were occupiedby people who lived there without needingto build great ramparts and ditches to keepthem safe. We know most about three bigtimber round houses, two of which wereside by side at Ballacagen in Arbory, andthe third was about one kilometre away atBallanorris. They are all on low, marshyland near the Dumb River which flows tothe sea to the west of Castletown. TheCelts who farmed there grew crops andkept animals. The houses were well builtand their owners repaired them so thatthey lasted for a long time.

All three houses had big oak posts tomake the main outside walls. These wallswere supported on the outside by thickbanks made of tightly packed clay whichwas dug out nearby, leaving wide, butshallow ditches round the houses. In suchwet places these were useful to drain anyflood water away from the houses if therehad been heavy rainfall, but were not deepenough to defend the houses fromenemies.

The houses had up to four rooms insidewhich needed strong posts set into theground to bear the weight of the roofoverhead.

To fill in the gaps between the main postsinside, the builders used lighter uprightposts, sometimes of pine, on which theycould weave long split tree branches tomake wattle partitions.

Sometimes the rooms inside looked likerings, getting smaller towards the centre ofthe house, but in one house there weretwo square rooms too. Because the landwas so marshy, when archaeologists weredigging at Ballacagen they found thatsome of the wood was still there after twothousand years.

Each house had at least one entrance witha hall or corridor going part of the way in.Sometimes these had floors made ofstones, while further into the living roomsof the houses the floors were often madeof beaten clay which had to be dry tomake it easy to keep them clean.Sometimes the floors were covered withrushes or straw which would be swept upand replaced regularly.

The floors sloped down towards the centreof the house. These houses had no drainsunder the floors, and so we know that thehouses must have been waterproof. Theclay floors would have become big pondsin the centre if any water had got into the

Celtic Farmhouses

Celtic Farmhouse

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house. In the sections near the outsidewalls there might be stone floors too, asthe farm animals were kept there at nightand during the winter months.

Near the centre of the house, where theroof was highest, there was a hearth whichwas usually lined with flat stones. The firegave heat and light to the living area of thehouse and was used for cooking.

There was a strong post beside the hearthwhere a cauldron could be hung over thefire. Any smoke from the fire would rise upand collect under the roof. Some houseshad a small pit sunk into the floor nearerthe outside where it was cooler for storingfood.

The biggest round house was about twentyseven metres wide. This is why the houseneeded so many posts to support the roof.Inside the house you could look up andsee the wooden frame, strapped togetherwith hide thongs, with the underside of theturf roof showing earth and roots.

Outside the roof was green with shortgrass, growing a little, because its rootswere still there. Some of the turf had beencut and rolled up in broad strips from theland near the house when it was first built.

This house had to have a wooden fenceright round it to stop the farm animals fromgetting on to the low roof to eat the grass.

There are at least twelve other roundhouses like these on the Island which havenot been excavated yet by archaeologists.

At the Braaid in Marown there is a stonewalled round house which was a Celticfarm. It was built about five hundred yearslater than the big wooden round houses.Although the farm was on high land, it isstill quite marshy as there are a lot ofsprings there.

The farm was later taken over by Vikingswho built their own type of house besidethe earlier Celtic one.

These farmhouses were lived in for a longtime before they were abandoned. Wedon’t know why the people left.

Perhaps they just had a chance to movesomewhere where there was better farmland and the houses were left to fall down.

Celtic Farmhouses

Inside a Celtic roundhouse

A cooking cauldron

In the Isle of Man the Celts’ farms variedaccording to the height of the land abovesea level and the type of land they owned.On the higher land and on the marshy lowland like that at Ballacagen the Celts hadpasture farms where they grazed cattleand sheep. Their animals were smallerthan ours today. The cattle had short hornsand the sheep looked very much like ManxLoghtan sheep - in fact their bonestructure is the same.

Some farmers kept pigs, but not inpigsties. They were allowed to root for foodduring the daytime in the woodlands whichwere outside the farm enclosure and theylooked much more like the wild boar whichare still found in some places in Europethan the breeds of pig kept on farms now.The cattle and sheep were kept for milk aswell as meat. When there was too muchmilk in the early summer some of it wouldbe made into butter and cheese whichkeep a lot longer.

As the weather grew warmer in summerthe sheeps’ wool was plucked off by handor perhaps clipped with iron shears andkept to make warm clothes for winter.

Most animals had to be killed at thebeginning of the Celtic winter which startedwith the festival of Sauin in November asthere was never enough hay and driedleaves to feed them all during the winterwhen the grass doesn’t grow much. Onlythe best animals were kept indoors duringthe winter to breed the following spring.The meat had to be hung over the fire tosmoke, or salted down in containers.Before this the salt had to be dried fromsea water during the summer when thesun was hot. The sea water would be runinto big shallow clay-lined ponds at theshore and as it grew hotter the waterevaporated leaving crusty rims of saltround the edges.

Hides from the dead animals were tannedto keep them soft and supple, so thatshoes, cloaks, bed covers and leatherbuckets could be made from them.

Even some of the bones were used, oftenfor small tools like spoons, combs orneedles. A shoulder blade from an oxmade a fine shovel for the fire at Close nyChollagh.

Celtic Food & Farms

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A Loghtan four-horned ram

There were quite a number of wild animalsliving on the Isle of Man in Celtic times.

The Celts hunted some of them and atethe meat. Venison from red deer wouldmake a welcome change for a meal, aswould the meat from the hares which alsolived in the hillier parts of the Island.

At Close ny Chollagh hedgehog boneshave been found - not many, but they werefound in a food dump by the houses whichmay mean that hedgehog wasoccasionally on the menu.

Chickens were kept at Close ny Chollaghfor their meat, eggs and feathers.

As well as keeping farm poultry, the Celtshunted and trapped wildfowl. Somerounded bones have been found, all withholes in them, which would make goodweights on a net for trapping birds likemallard ducks or geese, which wereplentiful.

Others birds caught might includewoodcock, pigeon, lapwing and curlew,and seabirds like Manx shearwaters,puffins, great auks and gannets whichused to be common.

On the more fertile land the Celts hadsmall fields in which they grew wheat andbarley. From the grains found in the Celticgrainstore on St. Patrick’s Isle we can tellthat they grew emmer and spelt wheat.

Scientists have grown emmer wheat as anexperiment to see how good it is to growand to eat. They have found that itproduces good heads of grain with plentyof seeds which have a high protein contentand that even when there are lots ofweeds in the field it still grows well. Bothwheat and barley seeds can be groundinto flour using a quernstone.

It was then baked to make tasty flatwholemeal bread. Barley was used tomake beer too which was flavoured withbog myrtle leaves to make it taste good. Inother parts of Britain the Celts grew oatsand rye, as they possibly did on Mann too.

There were plenty of vegetables whichwere grown or collected like cabbage,leeks, onions, beans, sea beet and rocksamphire.

Wild plants were used also as herbs toflavour food and sometimes for medicines.Mint, tansy, feverfew, and fennel can beused either fresh or dried for the winter.Some herbs like dill and celery seeds were

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Celtic Food & Farms

Bone weights from Close ny Chollagh

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probably imported from other areas too.Wild mushrooms were collected andsometimes dried, and fruits like apples,crab apples, blackberries, raspberries andgooseberries were popular. Honey wasused to sweeten food.

Where people lived by the sea they ateplenty of fish. It could be salmon, trout,cod, herring, ling or skate. Archaeologistsalso know that oysters, limpets, winkles,mussels, cockles, crabs and lobsters were

eaten, although the people who lived onSt. Patrick’s Isle seem to have been quitetidy with their food rubbish - they probablythrew the remains of their food into thesea.

The Celts in the Isle of Man might nothave enjoyed all the different foods wehave today, but they certainly knew how tomake the most of what they could produceand find for themselves.

Celtic Food & Farms

A rotary quernstone

Wool was the most useful material forclothes, because it was warm to wear, andeasy to spin and weave. Sheep’s woolwasn’t all white as it tends to be withtoday’s breeds, and natural browns, greysand blacks were used as well as dyedwool. Flax plants were grown so that somecloths could be made from linen which ismore comfortable when the weather iswarm. The linen fibres are processed fromthe stems of the flax.

The Celts used hand spindles for spinningthread. The slate whorls which were usedfor spindle weights are quite often found.

They wound the threads on to the bobbinswhich might be made from wood or bone.

To weave the threads into cloth they builtbig upright wooden looms. The warpthreads were weighted with large round oroval stones with holes in the middle fortying the threads.

The weft threads were wound on to awooden shuttle which was passed by handthrough the warp threads on the loom.

Clothes had to be quite simple because allthe sewing was done by hand, using boneneedles.

Men wore tunics and trousers whilewomen had long dresses. In winter a thickwoollen cloak was worn to keep out thecold.

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Celtic Clothes& Jewellery

Sewing tools

A Bobbin

The Celts enjoyed bright colours, andRoman writers described the Celts inBritain as liking checked and stripedpatterns, although no examples of clothhave been found yet in the Isle of Man.

We know what plants grew in Celtictimes and this can help us work out thenatural dyes used for their clothes.Shades of red, blue, purple, green,yellow, brown, and grey could be gotfrom lichens, blueberries, blackberries,nettles, weld and heather, acorns andsloe berries.

There were other plants growing in theIsle of Man then too which could beused for dyes. The Manx Celts tradedwith other parts of Britain and perhapsbought more expensive imported plantdyes like madder which makes a lovelyred colour or woad, which gives blue.

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Celtic Clothes & Jewellery

Small slate whorls

Their shoes were made from soft leather.Carranes are soft shoes with the hair stillshowing on the outside which Manxcountry people made at home until inrecent times ’ready made’ shoes becamecheap to buy from shops. They are justlike the shoes the Celts wore.

The Celts were interested in theirappearance. They combed their hair with bone combs and possibly they painted or tattooed themselves, althoughevidence of this comes only from otherareas.

Celts who could afford jewellery liked towear rings and bracelets which might bemade from glass, shale or amber. Beadnecklaces were popular and many peoplewore bronze pins or brooches to hold theircloaks in place.

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Celtic Clothes & Jewellery

Comb from Close ny Chollagh

Carranes

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The time from around 500 B.C. on, whenthe Celts lived and ruled in many parts ofEurope, is known as the Iron Age. By thenthey were skilled metalworkers, using ironfor tools and weapons, and bronze, silverand gold for more delicate work for use asornaments and jewellery. Early Celtssometimes used long bars of iron asmoney before they began to mint coins.They were either exchanged for goods, orkept so that a blacksmith could melt themdown to make or repair tools from them.Any smith was respected for his skills bythe Celts, wherever they lived.

In the Isle of Man there is no evidence thatthe Celts who lived here actually madetheir own iron goods until the 800s A.D.,and before this time they probablyimported these ‘ready made’ from otherparts of Britain. Bronze goods were madeon the Island, but the bars of metal had tobe brought here first so that the finishedgoods could be made. Crucibles, claycontainers for heating up the metal, havebeen found at Close ny Chollagh in

Malew and, from there and other Celticsettlements, there are some small clay andstone moulds into which the hot liquid

metal was poured to set into differentshapes.

Bronze pins for fastening cloaks havebeen found. Some pins and brooches arequite plain, but others are decorated - onebronze brooch from the roundhouse atBallacagen still shows the red colourwhere the surface of the bronze wasenamelled.

These more expensive pins and broocheswere brought to the Isle of Man, like thebrooch found at Close ny Chollagh.

Archaeologists know that it is just likeothers which were made in RomanEngland and sold in different areas inBritain.

Celtic Crafts & Trades

A clay mould and bronze pin

Imported brooches

Fragments from a clay crucible for melting bronzefound at Close ny Chollagh

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The Celts in some parts of Europe learnedhow to make coloured and patterned glasswhich was shaped into beads, braceletsand small ornaments. Some rich ManxCelts brought this glassware. Glass beadsand bracelets have been found atBallacagen.

The family who lived there must have beenin touch with other parts of Britain to havethese goods. Some of their yellow andblue beads come from Somerset in thesouth of England.

Other jewellery was made of black shale orjet which comes from England and theamber for beads which have been foundmust have come from other parts ofEurope.

Imported Celtic jewellery has been foundin different places on the Island as farapart as Close ny Chollagh andBallacagen in the south to Braust inAndreas in the north.

Although Celts in other places made goodquality pottery, the only pieces found in theIsle of Man at Ballacagen were very roughand simple ‘home-made’ containers.

Earlier peoples had made pottery on theIsland, but the Celts must have used moreorganic materials like wood and leather fortheir containers, which have rotted away intime. A few fragments of pottery importedfrom Roman Britain have been found.

The only wooden household object foundin the Isle of Man is a ladle handle atBraust. Most everyday objects which havebeen found are made of stone, bone andhorn.

It is much more difficult to know what theCelts who lived in the Isle of Man sold toother parts of Britain. Probably theyexchanged goods like wool and hides asthey kept animals on their pasture farms.

Trade was not so important that theRomans ever became really interested inthe Isle of Man.

Celtic Crafts & Trades

Imported glass jewellery

2121

The pagan Celts believed that the naturalworld was full of spirits - each plant, tree,stream, pool, or any living thing had itsown spirit. Some of these were verypowerful - trees stretched their branchesupwards towards the sky and sun whiletheir roots reached down into the earth orunderworld.

All trees were regarded as sacred, somelike the oak even more so. Water wasessential to life, but could also kill, if youwere out on a stormy sea for example.

Some Celts put offerings into pools, lakesand rivers to please the water spirits. Noofferings have been found in the Isle ofMan, but here too the Celts thought thatwells, where water came to the surfacefrom deep underground, were holy places.

Much later on people were still visitingwells which were believed to have thepower to heal illnesses.

To the Celts the natural world was soimportant to life that their beliefs helped toexplain things that were difficult tounderstand. It might be the weather -sometimes it was good and harvests gavethem enough food for the whole year, butat other times floods or droughts couldmean there was not enough for peopleand animals to survive on.

For them the seasons were so importantthat they had special Festivals when thespirits and gods could be asked to givegood weather with plenty of food so thatpeople could live well.

CELTIC SEASONAL FESTIVALS

At Sauin, at the beginning of November,the Celts’ New Year began. It was thebeginning of winter, when their cattle andsheep had to be slaughtered and the meatpreserved to last the people over the hardwinter months, as they had little or no foodfor animals to feed on, except for thosewhich were kept to breed the followingspring.

They feasted while there was still plenty offresh food and burned bright fires to keepaway the spirits they believe haunted theirworld as one year came to an end andanother began. Even today lighted turniplanterns on ‘Hoptunaa’ night, October31st, remind us of this Celtic custom onthe night when the spirit and human worldscame closest together.

Imbolc, a word lost now in Manx, was theFestival celebrated at the beginning ofFebruary, the start of the spring quarter ofthe year. It was the Festival of the goddess

Celtic Beliefs

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Brigit, later chosen as a Saint by CelticChristians, who was associated with thistime of the year when the ewes which hadbeen kept for breeding came into milk.

Brigit was an interesting goddess whohealed illnesses, protected women inchildbirth, foretold the future, and presidedover the ale harvest! In the Isle of ManBrigit has become St. Bridget (Brede orBride in Manx) and the parish of Bride isnamed after her.

May was Boaldyn, the start of summer,when animals could be put out to grazeagain. Fires were lit to encourage the sun’ssummer warmth which would ripen thecrops.

In some areas the Celts drove theiranimals through a narrow gap betweentwo fires to purify them and keep them freefrom disease through the summer months.More recently in the Isle of Man littlecrosses of rowan twigs, crosh keirn, weretied to the tails of the animals for the samereason.

The cross itself is the Christian symbol, butthe rowan tree was one of the pagan Celts’magic trees which was believed to keep

the people and their property safe from evilspirits.

With Luanistyn in August came theFestival of Lug, the Shining One, god ofLight, who was in Irish tales a greatwarrior, and associated with marriage,fertility and the harvest. Once again fireswere lit on the hills and celebrations beganfor this harvest month.

Until quite recently people still walked upto the hilltops at the beginning of August,particularly high areas where there werealso ‘healing’ wells like Snaefell, SouthBarrule and Maughold Head where it wasbelieved that illnesses could be cured.

The Celts also celebrated Midsummer,which is still celebrated in the Isle of Manas Tynwald Day on July 5th, although ourcalendar was altered in the eighteenthcentury to keep it accurate. Midwinter, theshortest day, is today kept as the Festivalof Christmas.

If you wonder why the Celts were so keenon lighting fires at every quarter of theyear, it was because they believed that firepurified everything, and that from theashes of fires new life sprung. This is truewith wood fires as the ash is a goodfertiliser and plants grow well from seedswhich have lodged there or roots whichhave survived underground. They alsothought that fires on earth were just likethe sun in the sky.

Celtic Beliefs

Loghtan ewes and lambs

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Celtic Beliefs

MANANNAN, GOD OF THE SEA

Manannan Beg Mac Lir, God of the Sea,was a powerful Celtic God. He was knownin several Celtic countries, especially inIreland and the Isle of Man. Irish tales tellus most about him, although stories inManx, like the 16th century ‘TraditionaryBallad’, mention him too.

Manannan was said to have his palace onthe summit of South Barrule, surroundedby the mists which he could create at will.

He could change his shape or appearanceand so you might see him as the greatarmoured God of the Sea, with his terriblesword the ‘Answerer’ from whose blow noenemy could recover.

At other times he might appear like anordinary looking young boy, or perhaps anold man. He might travel by his fast ‘WaveSweeper’

or astride ‘Enbarr’ who could travel swiftlyover sea and land alike.

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Manannan could create illusions so thathis shape changed into three legs andwould roll downhill like a wheel gainingspeed on the steepest of slopes.

With Manannan’s helpone man couldappear as onehundred men comingover the brow of ahill, causing enemiesto flee before them.

Every Tynwald Day rushes are still spreadon the procession path from St. John’sChurch to Tynwald Hill. This is a customwhich has come from the time when thepeople of the Isle of Man were said to goto South Barrule on that day each year topay a rent of rushes to Manannan for theirland. Manannan, of course, could find agood use for some of the rushes - hemight make a model boat and set it sailingon the water. His own people knew it wasonly a little rush boat, but his enemieswould believe they saw a whole fleet of ahundred great wooden ships coming to

attack them!

When Christian priests cameto the Isle of Man they did

not want the Celts tobelieve in the old godsany more, but the talesabout Manannan have become legends,which are still toldtoday.

Celtic Beliefs

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Celtic StoriesCELTIC STORIES

The Celts enjoyed stories of heroes,giants, fairies and strange creatures aswell as tales of their gods. All goodstorytellers were held in honour and muchlater some of their best stories were writtendown.

HOW MANN WAS MADE

Finn Mac Cooil was a famous Irish giant.Giants didn’t often get on very well witheach other and this was certainly true ofFinn when a red headed giant boldly cameover the sea from Scotland to challengeFinn’s strength on his own territory.

The Scottish giant didn’t succeed in thefight, and he started to run off as fast ashe could, back towards the sea. Finn couldsee that the Scot was a faster runner thanhe was and he was determined he wasn’tgoing to escape.

Down Finn bent, grabbed a good handfulof Irish soil and stones, and threw it afterthe retreating Scottish giant. His aimwasn’t too accurate and he missed.

The Scot bounded over the seahomeward, the great lump of soil fell in themiddle of the Irish Sea where it still is nowand, if you look at the map of Ireland, youwill see Lough Neagh in the north-eastwhere Finn stooped down and left a hugehole where he grabbed the handful of soilwhich became the Isle of Man.

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TEEVAL, PRINCESS OF THEOCEAN

Culain, the blacksmith of the Celtic gods,lived in the Isle of Man, Conchubar, ayoung man living in Ireland, went to visit agreat druid there who told him that if hetravelled to the Isle of Man and askedCulain to make him a sword, spear andshield, he would one day become the Kingof Ulster.

He did this and Culain agreed to make thespecial weapons as he had also heard theprophecy and recognised Conchubar.

While he was waiting for the weapons tobe made Conchubar spent a lot of timewalking round the Island.

One day he was walking along the shorewhen he came across a beautiful mermaidsleeping soundly on the sand. She was themost beautiful woman he had ever seenand, while she slept, he tied her with hisgirdle as he was afraid she would swimaway and he would lose her.

When Teeval woke up she pleaded withhim to let her go, promising that if heasked Culain to engrave the image of herface on his shield, he would become sostrong in any battle that he and his menwould always win. Conchubar could notresist Teeval’s pleas and let her go.

Teeval swam away, and, although henever saw her again, whenever he wentinto battle he looked at her image on theshield that Culain made and gained thestrength of a giant.

Once Conchubar had made himself Kingof Ulster, Culain was invited to leave theIsle of Man and was given lands in theKingdom of Ulster.

Celtic Stories

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THE COMING OF CHRISTIANITY

As we have no writing from the time to tellus how and when the Celts in Mannbecame Christians we have to rely onstories which were written down much laterand on the clues that archaeologists haveworked out. These don’t always agree!

Christianity is said to have been brought tothe Isle of Man by St. Patrick, althougharchaeologists have not found any proof ofthis. There are plenty of places in the Isleof Man named after the saint, including St.Patrick’s Isle at Peel, and St. Patrick’sChair in Marown where Celtic Christianpriests preached in the open air.

From the fifth century A.D. there wereChristian priests, mainly from Ireland, butfrom Scotland too, travelling in the IrishSea area and to the other parts of Britain,preaching about Christ to the people there.Probably people were reluctant to changetheir beliefs to start with and the Christianshad to become storytellers who were asgood as the pagan priests. This is why aCeltic pagan goddess like Brigit re-appearsin the Christian story as St. Bridget. Insome ways she was still very like the oldgoddess and her festival of Imbolc inFebruary was renamed St. Bridget’s Day,

which is why people were prepared toaccept the Christian ideas.

Archaeologists have found some earlyManx memorial stones from this timewhich have the name of the dead personwritten in Ogham on them.

A few stones have the name written inLatin. One has been found at Knock eDoonee in Andreas which has the name inboth Ogham and Latin. Simple crossdesigns were carved on some earlystones, but these don’t always havenames on them.

Celtic Christians

St. Patrick’s Chair

The stone of Bivaidonas

Stone from Greeba, Marown

The Celtic Christians also began to buildlittle chapels called keeills for the priests topray in. At first they were made with timberframes but, if they were rebuilt later, theywere built with stone, so that we still knowtoday where some of them were in Celtictimes.

THE STORIES OF ST. PATRICK

The Manx sixteenth century poem the‘Traditionary Ballad’ is an early writingwhich mentions St. Patrick.

‘Then came Patrick into the midst of them;He was saint and full of virtue;He banished Manannan on the wave,And his evil servants all dispersed’.

The poem describes how St. Patrickblessed other priests who came to the Isleof Man and became leaders of theChristian Church.

Of course, other Christian storytellersmade the arrival of St. Patrick seem moreexciting by saying that the pagan godManannan summoned thick mists to hidethe Island when he heard St. Patrick wason his way on horseback from Ireland tochange the Manx Celts into Christians. St.Patrick was lost out to sea until, out of themists, he heard three sounds - a curlewcalling, a goat bleating and a cockcrowing. These guidedhim to a safe landing onPeel Hill were heblessed thecreatures who hadhelped him andbanishedManannan fromthe Isle ofMan.

St. Patrick sent other priests to the Isle ofMan too, according to some Irish stories.One of these was a chief, MacCuill, fromUlster who led a band of thieves. Some ofhis men had become Christians when theyhad listened to St. Patrick and had left hisband. MacCuill boasted that he would killSt. Patrick, but when they met, St. Patricksaved the life of one of MacCuill’s menand convinced him that Christianity wasthe only true belief. To prove that he hadgenuinely changed his way of life, St.Patrick bound MacCuill in chains, threwthe key away into the nearby river, andsent him drifting out to sea in a little hide-covered coracle. The tides took the littleopen boat to the Isle of Man where it cameto land at Maughold Head. MacCuillbecame the leader of the Christians therewho built a monastery at Maughold, whichis named after him. The key to unchainhim did turn up after a while - in the bellyof a fish which was caught and served upfor dinner in the monastery!

Miracle stories like this were told by prieststo impress people, but archaeologistsagree that there was an early Christianmonastery at Maughold with at least fourlittle keeills, even if we don’t really knowwho built it.

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Celtic Christians

One of the keeills in Maughold Churchyard

CELTIC KEEILLS AND CROSSES

From the 600s A.D. the most importantChristian monastery was at Maughold,where a group of priests lived and workedtogether, and travelled round the Island totell people about Christ. Each area of theIsland had its own small chapel or keeillwhich the priests from the monasteryprobably visited. They were so small thatthey were not used like churches today.The people who came to listen to thepriest stayed outside where he preached inthe enclosed grounds round the building.The priest prayed inside at the altar on hisown so that he could feel close to Godand, in some remote places like Lag nyKeeilley in Patrick and Spooyt Vane inMichael, he lived in a tiny one-roomed cellbeside the keeill. These priests had theirown gardens where they grew vegetablesand fruit for food, and herbs that weregood to help some illnesses.

The altar stones from the keeills are verybeautifully decorated, especially the onewhich was found on the Calf of Man whichshows Christ on the cross.

Stone keeills sometimes had paved floorsand a window opening at the altar end ofthe building. Small rounded stones whichhad been hollowed out to hold oil wereused as lamps to light the altar.

Stone cresset lamp from Bride Church

There would be special occasions too, likethe christening of children or adults, whichwould be held outside. Most keeills had aholy well nearby - probably the same wellthat the pagan Celts a long time beforehad also believed was sacred. The waterwould be blessed and small stone cupshave been found which were used to holdthe holy water.

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Celtic Christians

Remote keeill at Lag ny Keeilley

The Calf of Man Crucifixion altar stone

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Funerals took place outside and the deadwere buried in stone-lined lintel graves inthe enclosed grounds of the keeill.

The priest would say prayers for the soulof the dead person as the coffin wasplaced in the ground.

Before it was covered the family andfriends put white quartz pebbles on to thecoffin lid. Perhaps they believed it wouldhelp the soul to reach heaven.

In memory of the dead person simple slateslabs were placed at the head of the graveto mark it.

The crosses carved on them might be verysimple, but as more and more Celtsbecame Christians, richer people wantedgrave markers which had complicatedinterlace designs. These were expensiveand took a stone carver a long time tomake, but they would last and lookbeautiful.

Celtic Christians

The Lonan Cross

The design of the carved cross becamemore complicated too. One of the mostpopular designs was a cross with a ringround the head. The stone carver mightshow figures as well.

One of the cross slabs from Maugholdshows a ring-headed cross with twofigures who are wearing habits. They maybe two priests from the monastery, orperhaps two of Christ’s disciples, but thereare no names on the cross.

Celts liked to carve animals too, and astone from Onchan shows two dogs withwide open jaws crouching on either side ofthe cross.

Another Maughold stone has Latin writingwhich tell us that

‘Branhui led off water to this place’.

Supplying water to the monastery was animportant task which needed an engineer’sskill to build a stone-lined water channel.

Branhui was probably a priest who learnedhow to do that, but on this stone there isno figure to show us.

One of the biggest compliments to theskills of Celtic stone carvers is that, whenthe Vikings came to the Isle of Man in the900s A.D. and met the Celts, many ofthem became Christians and asked stonecarvers to make stone cross slabs like theCeltic ones to mark their family graves too.

Even today, memorial stones often useCeltic designs.

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Celtic Christians

Cross from Maughold showing seated figures wearing habits

Cross from Onchan

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PLACES

When you look round the Isle of Man todayyou can still see evidence that hasremained since the Celts lived here.

On the Island many farm names start withBalla which is the Celtic word for a farm orsmall settlement. Some of these havestayed as separate farms in thecountryside, but others, like Ballasalla thesettlement of the willows (or sallies as theyare sometimes called) have grown bigenough to become villages today.

Even names which have become muchshorter like Ballaugh possibly used to beBalla ny Loghey, the settlement of thelake. Long ago the land round Ballaughwas much wetter than the area of landthere which is still wet and marshy enoughto be known by its Celtic name theCurraghs.

Most of the Manx hills have the Celticnames slieau, cronk or knock,(depending on the height of the hill), with asecond word after to describe them.

There are nine hills in different parts of theIsland which are called Cronk Mooar,which is Big Hill and another eight calledCronk Doo, Black Hill.

PEOPLE

It’s difficult to know what early Celticnames were as hardly any of them werewritten down in the Isle of Man, but someare still used today. If you know anybodywhose name is Fiona, you can trace thename back to the time of the Vikings,when it was Find, and even as far back asthe time when the Celtic family lived in theroundhouse at Ballacagen when thewoman’s name was Vinda.

Celtic Legacy

The Curraghs

LANGUAGE

Although the Celts’ language has changedover many years, you can still hear andspeak it. There are now two mainbranches of Celtic. The Manx Gaeliclanguage sounds like the Gaelic spoken inIreland and Scotland, but in Wales andCornwall, the other Celtic parts of Britaintoday, the languages have become quitedifferent from the three Gaelic areas.

If you meet Manannan in one of his manyshapes you can say ‘Good Morning’ to himin Manx and he will reply.

Look around and see some signs in Manx;

THIE VANANNANHOUSE OF MANANNAN, Peel

SCOILL VAROONEYMAROWN SCHOOL

CUSTOMS

Before the Celts became Christians theybelieved Manannan could save them fromdrowning at sea. Later St. Patrick wasthought to have the same power. There isstill a Manx fisherman’s prayer which says:

‘Manannan, Son of Lir,Bless us and our boats,Manannan, Son of Lir,Good going out, but better coming back,With the living and the dead.Manannan, Son of Lir’.

The fishermen were the ‘living’, and the‘dead’ were the fish they hoped to catch.

CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

Some of the places where the CelticChristians built their keeills are still usedtoday. Newer, bigger churches were built,like Maughold Church where the remainsof the stone walls of three keeills are inthe churchyard and the fourth one hasbeen used as the site for the church.

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Celtic Legacy

Maughold Church and churchyard

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Celtic Legacy

CELTIC ART

Maughold and other Manx churches havecollections of cross slabs, from Celtic andViking times, Artists and sculptors are veryinterested in the designs on them. Somehave copied the patterns and others havemade different designs using some of theideas they had when they looked at thecrosses.

A well known Manx artist who designed hisown Celtic patterns from the ones he sawwas Archibald Knox. From writing in aswirling Celtic style, to ornaments in

pewter and silver, and even his owngravestone, Archibald Knox has inspiredmany people to admire the art of the Celts.

In some ways the Isle of Man is still aCeltic Island, with its Celtic language whichhas lasted through the times of newcomerslike Vikings, Scots and English who cameto the Island after the Celts, and with theinterest today in the art and culture of itsCeltic past. Other ideas from differentplaces have now mixed with those of theCelts, which is how people adapt tochanging times, but still remember how theIsland’s story was made

Archibald Knox Celtic designs

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Amber: a clear yellowish fossil resin used forornamentsDruid: a Celtic priest who could foretell thefutureEmmer: a primitive grain, like wheatEnamelled: a glossy or glazed coating appliedto a metal surfaceHabit: robe worn by a priest or monkInterlace: to draw two or more bands acrosseach other, passing each alternately above andbelowJet: hard brown coal which can be polished Keeill: a small Celtic chapelLatin: language of the RomansLichen: primitive plant which grows on thesurface of rocks and treesLintel: flat slabs of stone placed over a graveLoom: a wooden frame on which threads arewoven into clothMiracle stories: fantastic stories made simpleto understandOgham: a Celtic alphabet with twentycharacters formed of lines

Organic: substances which exist naturally asparts of animals or plantsPagan: belonging to a religion which usuallybelieves in many godsProtein: essential food for growthQuartz: a mineral which forms quartzite rock; amilky white rock in MannQuernstone: two stones for grinding corn; theupper stone turned by handRampart: a bank of earth, sometimes facedwith stone, raised to defend a placeShale: a rock, often found over a coal seamSmelt: to melt ore to extract metalSpelt: a primitive grain, like wheatWarp: threads running lengthwise on a loom;sometimes held down by weightsWattle: wooden stakes interlaced withbranches to form fences, walls and roofs ofbuildingsWeft: threads carried on a shuttle and wovencrosswise in and out of warp threads

Glossary

AcknowledgementsProduced by the Manx National Heritage Education Service

Text by Fiona McArdle

Designed by Richard Dangerfield

Photographs from Manx National Heritage

Illustrations of Objects: Julia Ashby

Illustrations of Manannan and Celtic Stories: John Herdman

Manx National Heritage would like to thank the following for allowing their illustrations and photographs to be

reproduced:

Carranes and Crosh Keirn: Betty Southall

St Patrick’s Isle in the Iron Age

(with permission from the Friends of Peel Castle): Caroline Jamfrey

Celtic Woman, Priest and Storyteller: Gerry Embleton

Manx Loghtan Sheep: Malcolm Wright