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Back to homepageThe White Lady
Once upon a time a young man was coming home from Derbyhaven. He was staying in Glashen, and was coming up past Ballahick, when he heard great singing and dancing in the barn, so he went in and saw white
Read MoreCastle Rushen Tea Chests
During the Stanley regime, Castle Rushen with its garrison was the main centre of the Island’s administration and the most famous of them. James, the 7th, Earl of Derby, lived in it for a good while. The actual Derby House
Read MoreThe People of Colby…
Tradition states that before there were any attorneys, the people of Colby used to adjust their differences over the dead body of a wren; each party would pluck some of the feathers and bury them, and the case was settled.
Read MoreThe Cormorant and The Bat
There was a time in the olden days when the cormorant and the bat took counsel together to do something for the poor as they had compassion on them, and they went into the glens gathering wool to make clothing
Read MoreNecromancy and the Black Art
No person could practice the Black Art or any necromancy on any person who had in his possession a four-leaf clover. (source: Wm. Cashen’s Manx Folklore (1912); photo)
Read MoreWedding Publicity
There is throughout the island an actual dread regarding publicity of weddings. Though all the neighbours may be aware of little details leading up to the ceremony, households directly interested affect the greatest secrecy. Cooking for the feast, dressing and
Read MoreManx Superstition
When the robin will not sing in churchyard trees, the place is said to be haunted. (source: photo; text from an article in the Hartford Times, 1892)
Read MoreThe Fairies’ Banquet
The last sod-house on the Island is said to have been one which stood on Skyhill and was inhabited by a family named Ribbat (Redpath); it was built on the spot “where the oldest farm on the North used to
Read MoreAbduction of a Boy by the Fairies
Not so many years ago a farmer’s son in the parish of Andreas, was taken away by the Fairies and was lost for four years. One day, as his two brothers were passing by a thorn bush not far from
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