The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

 

Cloven Stones

Passage Grave

<b>Cloven Stones</b>Posted by bazaImage © baza
Nearest Town:Douglas (7km SSW)
OS Ref (GB):   SC429814 / Sheet: 95
Latitude:54° 12' 14.27" N
Longitude:   4° 24' 32.06" W

Added by Rivington Pike


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<b>Cloven Stones</b>Posted by baza <b>Cloven Stones</b>Posted by baza

Folklore

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Apart from crowds of holiday-makers, with whom the author is in the main sympathetic, the Isle of Man is a splendid place for the quiet tourist in search of health, scenery, and antiquities. The people invest their beauty spots with legends - few are without them - which make heavy demands on the faith that can remove mountains: thus "it is said that when the Cloven Stone hears the bell of Kirk Lonen ring, the two sides clap together."

The pleasant places which cater whole-heartedly for amusements and "attractions" are not in total effect much spoilt, though it is perhaps time to protest when the names Weeping Rocks, Wishing Stone, etc., are painted up on their respective rocks. Here is sophistication in Arcady, but it is generally done "with such an ingenuous air that it disarms criticism." Most of the island however is innocent of "attractions." Beautiful and neglected glens and highways are many...
From S.E.W.'s cutting review of 'In Praise of Manxland' by M. Fraser, in The Geographical Journal, July 1935.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
31st January 2009ce

I think this must be the monument connected with this folklore:
Cumming says "In Douglas Road, about one mile from Laxey, there is on the southern side of a little ravine, a small circle of twelve stones, one of which, six feet high, is remarkable as being cloven from top to bottom. The tradition is, that a Welsh Prince was here slain in an invasion of the island, and that these stones mark the place of his interment.
Mr Feltham mentions the discovery in the centre of the circle, of a stone sepulchral chest or kistvaen, and in the view which he has given of it as existing at the time of his visit, there is a clear indication of a coved roof of stones, forming an arched vault in the centre of the mound."
p350 in
The Monument Known as "King Orry's Grave", Compared with Tumuli in Gloucestershire
A. W. Buckland
The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 18. (1889), pp. 346-353.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
14th November 2006ce

Miscellaneous

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Like King Orry's Grave, the Cloven Stones are situated in the garden of a bungalow and has suffered building development. Rivington Pike Posted by Rivington Pike
27th December 2003ce

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Google Street Map view of the Cloven Stones
baza Posted by baza
26th August 2013ce
Edited 26th August 2013ce