The Isle of Man, also known as Mann, is an island nation and self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland. The head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The United Kingdom is responsible for the isle's military defence.
The Isle of Man had become separated from Great Britain and Ireland by 6500 BC. It appears that colonisation took place by sea sometime during the Mesolithic era. The island has been visited by various raiders and trading peoples over the years. After being settled by people from Ireland in the first millennium AD, the Isle of Man was converted to Christianity and then suffered raids by Vikings from Norway. After becoming subject to Norwegian suzerainty as part of the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles, the Isle of Man later became a possession of the Scottish and then the English crowns.
Ogham is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language, and later the Old Irish language. There are roughly 400 surviving orthodox inscriptions on stone monuments throughout Ireland and western Britain, the bulk of which are in southern Munster. The largest number outside Ireland are in Pembrokeshire, Wales.
Primitive Irish or Proto-Goidelic or Archaic Irish is the oldest known form of the Goidelic languages. It is known only from fragments, mostly personal names, inscribed on stone in the ogham alphabet in Ireland and western Great Britain from around the 4th to the 7th or 8th centuries.
St John's is a small village in the sheading of Glenfaba in the Isle of Man, in the island's central valley. It is in the House of Keys constituency of Glenfaba & Peel, which elects two MHKs.
Manx National Heritage is the national heritage organisation for the Isle of Man. The organisation manages a significant proportion of the island’s physical heritage assets including over 3,000 acres of coastline and landscape. It holds property, archives, artwork, library and museum collections in trust for the Manx nation. It is the Isle of Man's statutory heritage agency and an Isle of Man registered charity (№ 603).
The Manx are an ethnic group originating on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea in northern Europe. Their native culture has significant Norse, Gaelic and English influences. The Manx language descends from Middle Irish.
Roughly 400 known ogham inscriptions are on stone monuments scattered around the Irish Sea, the bulk of them dating to the fifth and sixth centuries. Their language is predominantly Primitive Irish, but a few examples record fragments of the Pictish language. Ogham itself is an Early Medieval form of alphabet or cipher, sometimes known as the "Celtic Tree Alphabet".
Andreas is one of the seventeen parishes of the Isle of Man. It is located in the north of the island in the sheading of Ayre. The main settlement in the parish in the village of Andreas, which is also known as Kirk Andreas.
The Knock y Doonee Ogham Stone is an early medieval memorial stone with inscriptions carved in Latin and Ogham.
Union Mills is a village in the parish of Braddan on the A1, the primary road which connects Douglas and Peel in the Isle of Man, close to the River Dhoo.
The Lunnasting stone is a stone bearing an ogham inscription, found at Lunnasting, Shetland and donated to the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland in 1876.
Philip Moore Callow Kermode, was a Manx antiquarian, historian and naturalist.
Celtic inscribed stones are stone monuments dating from 400 to 1000 AD which have inscriptions in Celtic or Latin text. These can be written in Ogham or Roman letters. Some stones have both Ogham and Roman inscriptions. The stones are found in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, the Isle of Man, and parts of western England. Most seem to be grave-markers or memorials to a dead individual.
The Manx runestones were made by the Norse population on the Isle of Man during the Viking Age, mostly in the 10th century. Despite its small size, the Isle of Man stands out with many Viking Age runestones, in 1983 numbering as many as 26 surviving stones, which can be compared to 33 in all of Norway. So many of them may appear on the Isle of Man because of the merging of the immigrant Norse runestone tradition with the local Celtic tradition of raising high crosses.
Cannell is a chiefly Manx surname which is derived from the Gaelic/Celtic McConnell or O'Connell. Cannell is one of the earliest recorded surnames on the Isle of Man. An Ogham Stone from the 5th century A.D found at Ballaqueeny on the Isle of Man reads that this is the stone of "Bivadonis Maqi Mucoi Cunava(li)" Cunava or Cunavali being the tribal name predating Cannell In English translates as "Bivadonis Son of the tribe Cunava". The Cunavali originated around County Louth in Ireland. They are considered "Cruithne" or Irish Picts, the race existing before Celtic immigration.
The Newton Stone is a pillar stone, found in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The stone contains two inscriptions: one is written in Ogham, but the second script has never been positively identified and many different decipherments or theories have been proposed since the 1860s.
The Manx Museum in Douglas, Isle of Man is the national museum of the Isle of Man. It is run by Manx National Heritage. In general, the museum covers 10,000 years the history of the Isle of Man from the Stone Age to the modern era.
Kiltera Ogham Stones are two ogham stones forming a National Monument located in County Waterford, Ireland.
Knock y Doonee is a significant historical and archaeological site in the parish of Andreas on the northern coast of the Isle of Man. The site has been in ritual use for centuries. Archaeological excavations have uncovered a Christian keeill with a bilingual ogham stone and a Christian carved stone cross; and on a nearby hilltop a Viking Age boat burial.
