Kammer

Visited 25th August 2003: Parking for the Braaid isn’t very easy. The nearest lay-by isn’t very close to the footpath, so you’re forced to walk along the A24, which is quite a busy road. Once on the footpath, it’s relatively easy going, but not exactly wheelchair friendly.

Just when you think the prehistoric sites on Mann couldn’t get any stranger, along comes a place like the Braaid. As we approached it I was wondering what the hell it was. Stones stick out of the ground all over the place like shark teeth. It’s only when you get up close that it begins to make sense.

The Braaid is a settlement, used up until the Viking period, but that’s about all everyone agrees on. It contains three structures, one a Viking Long House, one a Viking cattle byre and the other a circle of orthostats with rubble between them. The circle was initially interpreted as a stone circle, adapted for use as a round house in a later period. This would make it the only ‘true’ stone circle on the island. Modern thinking is that it never was a stone circle, but was built during the Iron Age as a round house.

I really enjoyed this place (even the Viking stones were pleasing). Like most of the sites on the island the Braaid is not busy with visitors. The stones are well placed in the surrounding countryside, and it’s easy to sit and ponder it all. It’s quite a puzzle.

Visited 25th August 2003: The Ballaharra Stones, like Tynwald Hill have been coiffured and made into something quite un-prehistoric looking. They sit alongside the road in a rose garden, in the shadow of the Royal Chapel of St. John, looking a bit like a badly thought out garden feature. I was a bit melancholic visiting what remains of this tomb, but I guess it’s a blessing that anything remains at all.

Visited 25th August 2003: Tynwald Hill is smaller than I’d expected. It doesn’t look like a prehistoric mound, largely because of the terracing that runs up it, and the staircase built into the eastern side. Is it prehistoric? I’m not sure that this particullar site it is, but perhaps the parliamentary customs that surround it started off at a similar Bronze Age mound nearby (a cist was discovered).

As well as the hill, it’s worth visiting the Royal Chapel of St. John (which is very modern) and Ballaharra Stones, just opposite.

Visited 25th August 2003: The Kew or Giant’s Grave is a an unusual site. Just as I was getting the hang of interpreting the Manx burial cairns I found myself flummoxed by this strange selection of stones.

The Kew is a double row of stones, the gap between the rows getting smaller at each end. The stones all lean inwards in such a regular fashion that it seems unlikely that they’ve subsided. On the western end of the site is an old field boundary, marked with a hedge-bank. This is close enough to the stones to give the impression that some of the site may be buried underneath it. At least one large stone in the hedge-bank looked like it might have once been part of the monument.

The site can be viewed from the track that runs past it, but the hedgerow makes this a bit tricky. There’s no public right of access to this site itself (something I didn’t realise at the time of our visit).

Visited 24th August 2003: Is this one site or two? Nobody seems to know for sure. We parked up right next to the north eastern section of the site, and while Alfie dozed in the car we tried to figure out what went where. Like Cashtal yn Ard there’s a forcourt, a clearly visible tomb entrance, and a long denuded cairn with chambers, but in this case the road cuts the end off.

On the other side of the road is the south western section of King Orry’s Grave, and this may or may not be part of the same cairn. The solitary standing stone is thought to be the last of the stones that defined the arced wall of yet another forecourt (this suggests to me that the two sites aren’t part of the same tomb).

Both parts of the site are difficult to interpret. Luckily there are big information boards on both sides of the road with reconstructive illustrations on them (slightly fanciful, but still useful). If you plan on visiting King Orry’s Grave, I’d recommend getting hold of a plan beforehand. It will help.

Visited 24th August 2003: Sadly there are no spirals on this stone [or at least that’s what I thought – see Captain Flint’s post]. It rests in the hedge bank of the lane leading into the tiny village of Ballaragh from the north. I have no idea how it got its name.

The Spiral Stone is thought to be a Bronze Age standing stone. Presumably it’s no longer in its original location. Parking is a bit tricky because the road is narrow, but anyone who’s happy with viewing from the car won’t get interrupted by much traffic.

Visited 24th August 2003: Cashtal yn Ard is one of the megalithic celebrities on Mann, so we approached it with some excitement. This turned out to be well placed, because the tomb is something special. I was still trying to get my head round the Manx tomb architecture, and this was the place to do it. If you had to see one tomb on the island, this should be the one.

The weather was good so we decided to have our picnic leaning against the forecourt stones near the tomb entrance. William loved the kinky portal stones and the square chambers, but I had to persuade him to be careful because some of the smaller stones moved when he clambered on them. Alfie crawled all over the place, and cruised round the monoliths, propping them up. It was a very relaxing visit.

Parking at the bottom of the lane is a bit tricky because there’s barely space to get two cars through. The gate by the road is on its last legs, and the gate into the tomb’s enclosure is unnecessarily small. There’s also a moderate incline up to the tomb, so wheelchair users and pushchair users beware.

Visited 24th August 2003: I spotted Ballafayle on the Ordnance Survey map, so we decided to take a look on our way to Cashtal yn Ard. Given the low profile the site has in the tourist leaflets and on the web we were surprised to find that there’s good access to the site, and quite a bit to see. This was my first proper Manx cairn, so I found it very puzzling.

The lane runs right past Ballafayle, with space for a car to park. Immediately opposite the cairn is Rullic Ny Quakern, a Keeill that was later used as a 17th Century Quaker burial ground. Access to from the road to both sites is unnecessarily hindered by low stone stiles.