#MyBiosphere: Timothy Dale

In our regular feature in Isle of Man Newspapers, authors from different walks of Manx life offer a personal perspective on #MyBiosphere. This month, Timothy Dale, from History of Man Tours writes:

As someone who was born on the Isle of Man, and has Thai ancestry, I have grown up with the best of both worlds. Having spent only a year of my life in Thailand, though, I feel like my roots are firmly placed on the Isle of Man. 

The aspect of the Isle of Man I have come to appreciate more than anything else is the vast amount of history that is preserved on such a small Island.

The site that exemplifies this the most is the site at Chapel Hill, Balladoole, which you can access any time of the year without paying a fee for entry.

There is a unique combination here of a Bronze Age burial, an Iron Age hill fort, a Viking ship burial and the remains of an early Christian chapel, or keeill as it is known in Manx. 

With the discovery of middens, a posh name for a Mesolithic rubbish dump, the history of this site could be extended to say that it was being used at the same time that Cashtal Yn Ard was being built.

The potential connection between the two is a mystery but, more mysteriously, we have no idea today of what made this place so important to three very different cultures and religions. 

The Bronze Age burial cist, of which the Bronze Age describes the period of time very roughly between 3000BC and 1200BC, unfortunately didn’t have any grave goods found within it but fragments of a cremation urn were located a stone’s throw away in the remains of a Christian keeill, one of more than 200 examples that have been unearthed on the Isle of Man.

Due to the small area of the site it seems that the Christian keeill was built on top of what may have been a more extensive Bronze Age burial complex.

These keeills weren’t the type of church that is familiar to us today. A lot of the keeills are in remote places, and were primarily meant to be places of solitude where a Monk could devote his entire life to worship without distractions.

The Viking ship burial is the portion of the site that has yielded the greatest amount information on the site. A wonderful exhibit in the Manx Museum describes and displays this find in great detail, from the significance of the site to the goods that were found there, and all this can be seen for free.

Last but not least is the remains of the Iron Age hill fort that surrounds the site. With walls three meters high in some places, constructed in a time where everything had to be done by hand and with only the assistance of basic tools.

The significance of places like Balladoole to me? I can’t help but appreciate how the historical tapestry, woven since the first people came to live here after the end of the last Ice Age, has been preserved here for everyone to see, and for the vast majority of it, not a penny has been spent in order to do so.

Timothy Dale is a Blue Badge Guide who runs History of Man Tours.