24-Oct-2023
Our nearest village is St Johns, and I've been surprised by how much there is to see there.
A couple of times we've walked to Garey ny Cloie, a lovely little wooded garden on the slopes of Slieau Whallian. It's a nice time of year to visit:
One of our circuits then takes us along the road to Ballacraine:
Quirky...
This building used to be a pub when I was a kid. Sometimes, if we'd been out in the evening, my parents would drop by for a quick drink. It would have been something innocent like a shandy. Maybe Mum would have had a sweet sherry. Kids weren't allowed in, so I would wait in the car, and Dad would bring me out a bag of crisps and a white lemonade... I thought this was a really good deal, and looked forward to such (fairly rare) occasions, but it's a practice that would probably be frowned on now...
Heading on into St Johns
If you continue into the village, you come to the grassy area that houses the Ballaharra Stones. The tomb where they were originally found belongs to the same Neolithic tradition as Cashtal yn Ard and King Orry's Grave. Four of the original six stones were relocated here, on the site of the village "pinpound".
And what is a pinpound? Well, it's also known as a pinfold, and it was an enclosure where straying animals could be accommodated until reclaimed by their owners. As the informative notice states, "From very early times farmers had to provide against the risk of damage caused by domesticated animals straying from their proper pastures... If they were not claimed within a year and a day, they became the property of the Lord of Mann (the term 'animal' being freely translated to include chickens, ducks, even swarms of bees)... References to the Parish pinfolds are to be found time and again in the Manx Statutes. The earliest mention in the Stanley code of laws of about 1420 orders that they be set up and repaired as in old times." As is the way of these things, the price payable for the release of the animal climbs steadily upwards over the centuries (from a halfpenny per hoof up to vast sums like 2s 2d for the summer impoundment of a cow, horse, swine, or mule).
What St Johns is most famous for, of course, is its four-tiered hill. This is where the new laws are read out, in Manx and English, on 5 July every year: "It is believed that the open air ceremony... was established by Norse Viking settlers over a thousand years ago with the hill thought to have been built in the 13th century, making it the oldest continuous parliament in the world."
The hill is a registered "Thing" site (the word comes from Old Norse). We've been to Thingvellir in Iceland, but I can imagine a really nice little itinerary that takes in a few more Things...
Opposite Tynwald Hill is a Bronze Age burial cist. Known as the "Giant's Grave", it would once have been part of a much bigger construction: "The burial mound must have looked quite striking in the surrounding landscape when it was constructed: sand and gravel loosely piled up to create the mound and then covered in shining white stones. This mound would have stood out in the landscape and shows the ways in which prehistoric communities used different materials to create striking architecture."
Right next to the grave are the Cooil y Ree Gardens, another pleasant wooded area:
This tree commemorates the 35 victims of the Winter Hill air disaster, February 1958
From here, we can pick up the old railway line and the field path to return to Rose Cottage (tucked away in the middle of this picture):
A variation takes you from Garey ny Cloie along the railway track, past Tynwald Hill and the Giant's Grave, and along to Tynwald Mills, once a busy weaving centre and now a complex of cafes and shops.
All in all, St Johns makes a great base. Highly recommendable.