Were there ever Druids on the Isle of Man?
I have often been asked this question in the Island but I did not expect to be able to produce a definite fact so soon to show that Man had her Druids like other Celtic lands.
I have been staying the last few days at Mr. Kelly’s, at Ballaqueeney, in Rushen. He has two Ogam stones at the house. I have visited them every time I have been in the Island, as one of them had a portion I could not read. Now I am happy to say that we have got the stone so clear that there is no longer any doubt in my mind about a single score of the Ogam. It reads as follows
‘The place or the stone of Dovaido, son of [the] Druid,” or the Charmer, for the ancient Druids of these Islands were the charmers and herb doctors of their day.
(source: by John Rhys circa 1892, A Manx Notebook; artwork is by J W Baker)
