THE MANOR OF BEAL 295 



So far as is known, no pre-historic remains have been found 

 within the manor. A tradition, unsupported by any reliable 

 authority, has associated Beal with the Irish Saint Begha^ 

 who is stated to have sojourned on an island oif the North- 

 umbrian coast, after she received the veil from the hands of 

 Saint Aidan. It is not impossible that the ' island ' may have 

 been Islandshire.^ 



It was at Beal that the mediaeval pilgrim to Holy Island 

 gave pause at the sight of the gleaming waters of the bay, 

 and waited until the reflux of the tide should permit his bare 

 or sandalled feet to pace the two miles of separating sands. 



Dry-shod, o'er sands, twice every day, 



The pilgrims to the shrine find way ; 



Twice every day, the waves efface 



Of staves and sandall'd feet the trace. Scott. Marmion. 



The hamlet of Beal stands on a knoll about half a mile 

 distant from the shore. There is no record of the existence 

 of any tower or fortified house, but there is a plain massively 

 built manor house erected in the latter part of the seventeenth 

 century by the Ord family, covered by a heavy roof of grey 

 slates, and protected by a grove of wind-swept trees. The 

 manor, of which the hamlet is the coi-e, was foi-merly, and for 

 some purposes is still, divided into two unequal portions, viz.: 

 Beal North Side comprising 504 acres of arable and pasture land, 

 12 acres of roads, and 347 acres of sand ; and Beal South 

 Side comprising 229 acres of arable and pasture land, with a 

 total area of 1,393 acres. The following characteristic place- 

 names have been preserved — Hackwell Quarter, Beal-bushes, 

 Carrow-hill, Carrow-meadow-well, Rape-close, Prior's-piece, 

 Virtue-well-close, Suddow-well-close and Strothers. 



In the return of knights' fees, known as Testa de Nevill, 

 drawn up not later than the reign of Henry III. (1216-1272), 

 and possibly in the reign of King John, it is stated that 

 Gilbert de Behil held a moiety of the vill of Behil, as a free 



^ There was more than one saint named Be^ha. The Irish saint of the 

 name who is stated to have received the veil of Saint Aidan (died 651) 

 during the reign of Saint Oswald the King, (died 642) is asserted to have 

 died circa 660. Cf. Bp. Forbes's Kalendars of Scottish Saints, -p. 278. 



