Peel Castle | |
---|---|
General information | |
Town or city | St Patrick's Isle, Peel |
Country | Isle of Man |
Construction started | 11th century |
Completed | 1860 |
Client | Magnus II of the Isle of Man |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Several |
Peel Castle (Cashtal Phurt ny h-Inshey in Manx Gaelic) is a castle in Peel on the Isle of Man, originally constructed by Norwegians. The castle stands on St Patrick's Isle which is connected to the town by a causeway. It is now owned by Manx National Heritage and is open to visitors during the summer.
The castle was built in the 11th century by Norwegians, under the rule of King Magnus Barefoot. While there were older stone Celtic monastic buildings on the island, the first Norwegian fortifications were built of wood. The prominent round tower was originally part of the Celtic monastery, but had battlements added at a later date. In the early 14th century, the majority of the walls and towers were built primarily from local red sandstone, which is found abundantly in the area. After the rule of Norway, the castle continued to be used by the Church due to the cathedral built there – the see of the diocese of Sodor and Man – but was eventually abandoned in the 18th century.
The castle remained fortified, and new defensive positions were added as late as 1860. The buildings within the castle are now mostly ruined, but the outer walls remain intact. Excavations in 1982-87 revealed an extensive graveyard as well as the remains of Magnus Barefoot's original wooden fort. The most spectacular finds were the 10th century grave of "The Pagan Lady" which included a fine example of a Norwegian necklace and a cache of silver coins dating from about 1030. The Castle's most famous "resident" is the so-called Moddey Dhoo or "Black Dog" ghost.
Peel Castle features today on the reverse side of the banknotes of the Manx Pound £10 notes issued by the Isle of Man Government. [1]
Peel Castle may occasionally be confused with Piel Castle, located on Piel Island, to the east across the Irish Sea. This particularly occurs in reference to the William Wordsworth poem describing Piel, spelling its name as 'Peele': especially as Wordsworth is documented as having visited Peel Castle, and wrote several times about the Isle of Man. [2]
Peel Castle has been proposed as a possible location of the Arthurian Avalon. [3] [4] [5]
The cathedral ruins located within the walls of Peel Castle are those of the former Cathedral of St German. [6] Like the structures throughout the castle grounds, the cathedral's roof is completely missing. Robert Anderson examined the ruins to determine what repairs were required to restore the cathedral, and he reported to the island's Lieutenant Governor in 1877. [7] However, none of the suggested repairs were carried out.
There is a pointed barrel-vaulted crypt below the chancel, measuring 34 feet by 16 feet by 9 feet high at the west end (10 × 5 × 3 metres), sloping to the entrance at the east. [7]
In the middle of the transept is the tomb where Bishop Rutter was interred in 1661. [7]
There is a cemetery in what was once the cathedral's nave.
In 1980 the parish of German, part of the Church of England's Diocese of Sodor and Man, was officially transferred to the newer Cathedral Church of St German on Albany Road in Peel.
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.
Castletown is a town in the Isle of Man, geographically within the historical parish of Malew but administered separately. Lying at the south of the island, it was the Manx capital until 1869. The centre of town is dominated by Castle Rushen, a well-preserved medieval castle, originally built for a Viking king.
Peel is a seaside town and small fishing port in the Isle of Man, in the historic parish of German but administered separately. Peel is the third largest town in the island after Douglas and Ramsey but the fourth largest settlement, as Onchan has the second largest population but is classified as a village. Until 2016 Peel was also a House of Keys constituency, electing one Member of the House of Keys (MHK), who, from September 2015, was Ray Harmer. Peel has a ruined castle on St Patrick's Isle, and a cathedral, seat of the Diocese of Sodor and Man.
The Diocese of Sodor and Man is a diocese of the Church of England. Originally much larger, today it covers just the Isle of Man and its adjacent islets. Today, the bishop's office is in Douglas and the cathedral is in Peel. The diocese is not generally called either "Sodor diocese" or "Man diocese".
St Patrick's Isle is a small tidal island on the west coast of the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, largely occupied by Peel Castle and noted for its attractive and relatively well preserved historic castle ruins.
Piel Island lies in Morecambe Bay, around 1⁄2 mile off the southern tip of the Furness peninsula in the administrative county of Cumbria, England. It is one of the Islands of Furness, three of which sit near to Piel at the mouth of Walney Channel. The island is the location of Piel Castle, built by the monks of Furness Abbey in the fourteenth century.
The Cathedral Church of Saint German or Peel Cathedral, rebranded as Cathedral Isle of Man, is located in Peel, Isle of Man. The cathedral is also one of the parish churches in the parish of the West Coast, which includes the town of Peel. Built in 1879–84, it was made the cathedral by Act of Tynwald in 1980.
The culture of the Isle of Man is influenced by its Celtic and, to a lesser extent, its Norse origins, though its close proximity to the United Kingdom, popularity as a UK tourist destination, and recent mass immigration by British migrant workers has meant that British influence has been dominant since the Revestment period. Recent revival campaigns have attempted to preserve the surviving vestiges of Manx culture after a long period of Anglicisation, and significant interest in the Manx language, history and musical tradition has been the result.
Ballasalla is a village in the parish of Malew in the south-east of the Isle of Man. The village is situated close to the Isle of Man Airport and 2 miles (3 km) north-east of the town of Castletown.
The Tower of Refuge is a stone-built castellated structure which was erected on St Mary's Isle in Douglas Bay, Isle of Man, in order to afford shelter to mariners wrecked on the rock. The tower was constructed through the endeavours of Sir William Hillary, who had been instrumental in several rescues of sailors stranded on the rock, and which culminated in the heroic rescue of the crew of the Saint George Steam Packet Company steamer RMS St George, when it foundered on the rock in the early hours of November 20, 1830. Sir William personally contributed a high proportion of the costs and secured a substantial number of public contributions for funding the structure.
Piel Castle, also known as Fouldry Castle or the Pile of Fouldray, is a castle situated on the south-eastern point of Piel Island, off the coast of the Furness Peninsula in north-west England. Built in the early-14th century by John Cockerham, the Abbot of neighbouring Furness Abbey, it was intended to oversee the trade through the local harbour and to protect against Scottish raids. The castle was built using stones from the local beach, and featured a large keep with surrounding inner and outer baileys. It was used as a base by the Yorkist pretender Lambert Simnel in 1487, but by 1534 it had fallen into ruin and passed into the hands of the Crown.
Castle Rushen is a medieval castle located in the Isle of Man's historic capital, Castletown, in the south of the island. It towers over the Market Square to the south-east and the harbour to the north-east. The castle is amongst the best examples of medieval castles in Europe and is still in use as a museum and educational centre.
John Phillips was the Anglican Bishop of Sodor and Man between 1604 and 1633. He is best known for writing the first dateable text in the Manx language in his translation of the 1604 Book of Common Prayer in 1610.
Mark Hiddesley or Hildesley was an Anglican churchman. He served as vicar of Hitchin in Hertfordshire and later as Bishop of Sodor and Man between 1755 and 1772, where he encouraged Bible translations into Manx.
Greeba Castle is a castle on the Isle of Man.
Isaac Barrow was an English clergyman and Bishop, consecutively, of Sodor and Man and St Asaph, and also served as Governor of the Isle of Man. He was the founder of the Bishop Barrow Trust. During his time as Bishop of Sodor and Man and Governor of the Isle of Man, he enacted significant social, political, and ecclesiastical reforms. He is sometimes confused with his more famous namesake and nephew, Isaac Barrow (1630–1677), the mathematician and theologian.
Samuel Rutter was Bishop of Sodor and Man between 1661 and 1662.
Bishopscourt consists of a 17th-century mansion house, the St Nicholas in the Church of England Diocese of Sodor & Man, and the former estate of Ballachurry or Bishopscourt Manse. Previously the official residence of the Bishop of Sodor and Man, the current Bishopscourt House and estate are now in private ownership.
The Bishop of Sodor and Man is the Ordinary of the Diocese of Sodor and Man in the Province of York in the Church of England. The diocese only covers the Isle of Man. The Cathedral Church of St German where the bishop's seat is located, is in the town of Peel. St German's was elevated to cathedral status on 1 November 1980.
St Trinian's Church is the roofless ruin of a small chapel at the foot of Greeba Mountain, adjacent to the main A1 Douglas - Peel Road in the parish of Marown, Isle of Man. Referred to in the Manx language as a "Keeil Brisht", the church is the source of an ancient Manx folktale concerning the Buggane, a huge mythical ogre who lived on Greeba Mountain and who vowed that the church should never be completed.
Media related to Peel Castle at Wikimedia Commons
Coordinates: 54°13′35.22″N4°41′56.76″W / 54.2264500°N 4.6991000°W