Keeill Pharick a Dromma

Period: Early Medieval

NGR Easting: 229780

NGR Northing: 486840

Description: Medieval chapel and burial ground. The name of the site means ‘St Patrick’s chapel on the ridge’, which exactly describes its location. The site was investigated by the Manx Archaeological Survey (1910), before which the site had the appearance of a mound of some 18m, rising to between 1.3 and 1.7m. The position of the chapel itself was already apparent, and had been identified by the Ordnance Survey some forty years earlier.

The Survey’s excavation found the chapel to measure 5.5 by 2.9m internally, with walls averaging 1m high and thick. The chapel was orientated ENE-WSW. The exterior faces of the ‘north’ and ‘east’ walls were particularly ruinous. The doorway was in the ‘wes’t gable, but no evidence for windows was recognised. Remains of the base of the altar survived, indicating a structure 1.2m wide and 0.6m deep. There was almost no evidence for paving on the floor, except for a few slabs of stone.

Three burials in lintel graves were found about 0.3m below the floor level. Graves have been reported 25m north-east of the mound and a similar distance to the west as a result of agricultural activity, and highway works have also historically revealed burials to the west of the chapel.

During excavation several layers of burnt red and ashy material were found above the floor within the chapel, leading to the Survey to suggest that it may have had a thatched roof which was destroyed by fire.

View map location on Archaeology Data Service

Site & Monument Type: keeill

Category: National Monuments Record: Statutory Ancient Monuments

Site ID number: 0897.00