Tynwald Hill, Cronk y Keeill Abban
Period: Late Medieval
NGR Easting: 236150
NGR Northing: 482520
Description: Assembly place. Early written statutes record a parliamentary assembly, or 'thing' at "Killabane" in 1428. The actual site is believed to have been at SC 36158252, now the site of a quarry from which stone was extracted for the construction of the nearby St Luke's Church, which was consecrated in 1836. The site had until then appeared as a rocky eminence.
A fair was held there until circa 1770 and 'seats' or tiers are said to have survived until at least the same time. The site was commemorated by an annual procession around it until about 1871, when it was described as 'levelled and enclosed in the adjoining field', though a fragment of the 'seats' was reportedly still to be seen in 1910.
The circular stone enclosure to the south at SC 36178245 serves as a memorial to the assembly site, and is marked by a bronze plaque, set up by the Trustees of the Manx Museum in 1928 on the fifth centenary of the earliest recorded assembly here.
View map location on Archaeology Data Service
Site & Monument Type: assembly mound
Category: National Monuments Record: Statutory Ancient Monuments
Site ID number: 0723.00