June 2014

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…

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…

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…

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…

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)

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…

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)

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…