Have a look through them and compare them to the view you’ll see around you today:

The photos I came across were labelled the Pamela Jones collection, and are being used with the assumption that this use falls within the purposes for which they were placed online. Please feel free to contact us if this is not the case.

Surprise your loved one with a Manx greeting this year. Bet they won’t be expecting it!

Just inside the main entrance was the guard’s room where the soldiers were posted to keep guard. From the guard’s room a passage led to an ancient church and through this to Captain of the Guard’s quarters.

In the evening as night fell it was the duty of one the guards to lock the great castle gate and take the key down the passage to the Captain of the Guard. This duty was taken in turns and who ever locked the gate would be responsible to ensure the key was taken down through the darkness of the passage and placed into the Captain’s own hands, before returning back up the passage to the guard’s room.

In the grey evenings after the gate was shut the soldiers would get together in the guard’s room and light a fire to dispel the cold and gloom. There, they would spend the evening drinking ale and telling stories.

The appearance of the black dog

When the first sightings of a large black dog with a long, shaggy, unkempt coat were reported, some accounts said it was like a huge spaniel. No one knew who it belonged to, where it had come from, or how it got into the castle.

Its presence was a complete mystery, always appearing after the gates were shut. Sometimes it would appear in one room, and at other times would be seen in different parts of the castle and grounds.

Every evening after the fire was kindled in the guard’s room fireplace and as the cold and gloom began to dissipate the dog would be heard padding down the passage to enter the guard’s room.

The huge creature ignored the frightened guards and making no sound lay by the fireside until dawn. Then just before the sun rose it would get up and pad into the passage and disappear until evening when it would reappear again.

The dog is said to have had a supernatural appearance and although the guards were frightened of the beast they would ignore it. Instead of drinking and revelling they would tend to keep sober and quiet so as not to disturb, keeping on their best behaviour. However, now, instead of one soldier taking the key to the Captain’s quarters, two would go. No one would walk along the black passage alone after the appearance of the dog.

The drunken soldier

The legend tells that one night after the appearance of the dog one of the soldiers got drunk and boasted loudly that he would take the key down the passage to the Captain alone that night as he feared no dog, mortal or supernatural.

Although it was not his turn to take the key and his fellow soldiers did their best to dissuade him, he would have none of it and set off into the blackness of the passage alone. To show his fellow soldiers his courage he taunted the beast, challenging it to follow if it dare.

Although the other soldiers tried to hold him back the drunk would not be restrained and plunged into the passage with the keys, again challenging the dog to follow to see if it was mortal, or supernatural. The huge black beast slowly rose and followed him down the passage.

Silence fell upon the castle like a black cloak and those who remained in the guard’s room huddled together in fear and would not follow the drunken soldier into the blackness of the passage. Time seemed to stand still, but after what could only have been a few minutes they heard the most deathly and terrible cries and screams coming from the passage, but none would leave the guard room to investigate, or give help.

The return of the soldier

Shortly, from the passage they heard the staggered footsteps of someone struggling back towards them. The drunken soldier fell through the door into the room, his face white and twisted with fear, his eyes blazing in terror, his mind destroyed.

From then on he uttered not another sound and he could not, or would not, tell what had befallen him. Three days later he was dead taking the secret of his ordeal to the grave. After that night the black dog was never again seen in the guardroom, passage, or anywhere else in Peel Castle.

Could it be true?

It certainly makes a good story! In many different places of the British Isles there are many legends of black dogs. Many have associations with Viking settlements and the Vikings built Peel Castle which is actually situated on St Patrick’s Isle and linked by causeway to the Isle of Man. In the Manx language ‘Mauthe Doog’ means ‘black dog’ and Moddey Dhoo is thought to be derived from this.

In England and Scandinavia phantom black dogs are also strongly connected with early Christian church and graveyards where a black dog would be buried alive to protect the church and grounds from the devil. The passage from the guard’s room was said to have run through an ancient church.

Intriguingly, an excavation in the castle grounds, in 1871, uncovered the remains of Simon, Bishop of Sodor and Man, who died in 1247. At his feet was found the skeleton of a large dog.

Article kindly supplied by Zteve T Evans.
Artwork by Charlotte Grub

Snow On Pulrose Golf Course

Santa Train at Douglas Station

Giant Father Christmas In Braddan

Sun And Snow On Douglas Head

Xmas Lights in Ridgeway Street

Christmas is drawing close and our friends from Learn Manx have been kind enough to share some Manx greetings with us. So, if you’re looking for the best way to say “Merry Christmas” in Manx or then check out the list below. All you need is some practice!

A traditional greeting
Nollick Ghennal erriu, as blein feer vie
Seihll as slaynt da’n slane lught-thie;
Bea as gennallys eu bio ry-cheilley,
Shee as graih eddyr mraane as deiney

A Merry Christmas to you, and a very good year
Long life and health to the whole household;
Life and joy to you living together,
Peace and love between women and men.

Some other phrases worth knowing:

Kind thanks to Peter Killey from ManxScenes for the lovely photos of the Isle of Man shown alongside the poem.

This is the first comprehensive history of the Manx Penal System covering the 500 year period of the use of the Islands two castles as prisons, prior to the building of a purpose built prison in Douglas, the Island’s New Capital in 1891. This prison was closed in 2008 and prisoners moved to a new £40 Million prison at Jurby in the North of the Island.

The book, written by N. D. Quilliam – a former Manx prison officer, gives a detailed account of social history and daily routines. The 16 chapters and appendix cover all aspects including a detailed article on the last execution in 1872. It has 45 photographs, maps and letters, including one from the Hang Man.

Crime has been with us since man was first created, and unfortunately will continue, but the prison system helps to reduce crime. This book gives you the insights to a life behind bars!

[singlepic id=14 w=160 h=120 float=right]When the summer day is over
And the busy cares have flown,
Then I sit beneath the starlight
With a weary heart. alone,
And there rises like a vision,
Sparkling bright in nature’s glee,
My own dear Ellan Vannin
With its green hills by the sea.

[singlepic id=15 w=160 h=120 float=right]Then I hear the wavelets murmur
As they kiss the fairy shore,
Then beneath the em’rald waters
Sings the mermaid as of yore,
And the fair Isle shines with beauty
As in youth it dawned on me,
My own dear Ellan Vannin
With its green hills by the sea.

[singlepic id=13 w=160 h=120 float=right]Then mem’ries sweet and tender
Come like music’s plaintive flow,
Of someone in Ellan Vannin
That lov’d me long ago,
So I give with tears and blessings,
And my fondest thoughts to thee,
My own dear Ellan Vannin
With its green hills by the sea.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. If you’re musically inclined you can find the words of Ellan Vannin set to music by J. Townsend on the Manx Notebook.

Kind thanks to Peter Killey from ManxScenes for the lovely photos of the Isle of Man shown alongside the poem.

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