Cregneash

Description: Cregneash sites inland near the southern tip of the Isle of Man (NGR 21890 46730). Brown's Popular Guide to the Isle of Man of 1892 says, “This village, which will strongly remind the visitor of the remoter villages in the west of Ireland, is the most southern inhabited locality in the Island. It consists of about a dozen houses, and was, until the last few years, noted for its persistent retention of the old ways and ideas of the country. The community, small as it is, rarely married outside of its own limits. They kept up the old habits and dress of their fathers; Manx only was spoken among them; none of them had been out of the Island, except during their fishing voyages, and many of them had never been outside the limits of their own parish; deeply impressed with religious feeling, and, on the whole remarkably moral in their lives, their prejudices were strong, their ideas were narrow, their ignorance of everything beyond the sphere of their daily lives was profound, and their belief in fairies, bugganes, and other spiritual beings, without limit. Their houses were low, roughly built huts thatched with straw, while bundles of gorse placed in the doorways served instead of doors. Now, this is all passing away. Larger and better houses are taking the place of the old one-storied hut; the English language is fast superseding the Manx. Encouraged by the advent of the “iron horse” into their parish, and the regular passage of mail steamers between the Island and the neighbouring countries, their exclusiveness is fast giving way; the old national dress – the undyed-loaghtyn wool jacket, the carranes, and the Sunday blanket – has almost disappeared with the national language; but their narrow ideas and their old-world superstitions are almost as strong and as operative as ever.” (p.305-7)

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