MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 117 



The Rev. S. JN". Harrison, in 1884, opened a mound 

 on the Barony, Maughold. in the centre of which was a 

 long grave, E. and W., lined on the sides with nags, and 

 having a flag-stone at the W. end, but the E. built up. To 

 the north was a second stone-lined grave : above were 

 traces of ashes. 



In a field at Bishopscourt a mound previously reduced 

 almost to the level of the field was examined in 1888 and 

 found to contain a cist about 5 feet long, formed by two 

 side-stones set on edge ; in it were remains of burial by 

 inhumation, the body having been laid on its side, head 

 northwards, the knees apparently doubled up. A large 

 slab, 8ft. 6in. long by 16in. wide, might originally have 

 been set upright at the head of the grave. Some charcoal 

 was met with outside the S.E. corner of the cist. Another 

 close by had a capstone 3ft. 8in. long by 2ft. 8in. It was 

 filled with loose sand, but fragments of a skull were met 

 with ; also a small urn (full of sand) the shape of a flower- 

 pot, 3f in. high by 4^in. diameter at the mouth, and L|in. 

 at the bottom. Both cists contained broken red quartz, 

 and rounded white pebbles. 



Some of the mounds still existing may belong to a 

 much later date, that, namely, of the Scandinavian 

 settlers, who arrived as pagans about the end of the 9th 

 century, and became Christian in the 11th. Though this 

 Scandinavian nature of some of the burial mounds is 

 certainly likely, we are not aware of any evidence as yet 

 recorded on which to determine the question. 



Tynwald Hill itself may possibly have been in its 

 origin a burial mound of peculiar sanctity, afterwards 

 converted into a place of assembly. Whether this was so 

 before the Scandinavian occupation there is no evidence 

 to show, but the name at all events dates from that period. 

 It resembles the " Moot-places," of which remains are still 



