Ballaoates, Chapel Field
Period: Medieval
NGR Easting: 236329
NGR Northing: 479284
Description: Medieval chapel; Bronze Age burial mound.
The Ordnance Survey 1:2500 First Edition mapping of 1867-8 shows the site of a chapel at this location, together with the annotation, ‘Chapel (Site of)’. The OS places a marker in the corner of a field (OS Field no. 1353) which it names Chapel Field.
The Manx Archaeological Survey (1918) described the site as a mound some 10m in diameter and almost 3m high 'which is said to be the site of the Keeill'. The Survey's investigation resulted in a trench 1.8m wide across the mound from north to south. Although large and smaller boulders were met with, together with smaller field stones, the Survey found it hard to identify structural remains.
A concentration of stone at the centre of the mound was thought to indicate walling, but 'it was nowhere continuous, and if it had been built as such (one or two stones apparently set in courses), the largest and best stones had been removed.' Adjacent to this, however, was an area of thin slabs which extended for a distance of almost 3m, which was thought to prepresent paving. This area was also tested to see if in fact they were the covering slabs of lintel graves, but this turned out not to be the case.
No evidence was found to indicate any burial activity of either Christian or Bronze Age date, such as might have created a burial mound. The Survey noted, however, that the east side of the mound was revetted by coursed walling.
The mound is now somewhat reduced by modern farming activity, and the nearby field boundaries, which historically provided it with a measure of protection from agricultural progress, have been grubbed out.
View map location on Archaeology Data Service
Site & Monument Type: chapel; burial mound
Category: National Monuments Record: Archaeological Sites [multi-site]
Site ID number: 0683.00
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