Glendarragh Circle and Alignments, The Braaid, I.O.M.

Abstract

The Glendarragh sub-megalithic circle and its adjoining alignments are situated in the parish of Marown at a height of 450 ft. on the northern slope of The Mount, a north-east outlier of the southern Manx hill-mass(O.S. 1 in. Sheet 19, Sq.K.6). Drainage from the surrounding fields collects at the site into a small southern tributary of the river Dhoo, which flows eastward to Douglas. The valley of the larger stream forms the south-eastern half of the middle gap of the Isle of Man, an important routeway in prehistoric and Early Christian times. The site commands the wide slopes above the marshy alluvial tracts of this south-eastern portion of the middle gap, and on the sky-line are the magnificent broken uplands which form the heart of the northern hill-mass. The view is known locally as ‘The Plains of Heaven’. The name ‘Glendarragh’ is said to signify in the Manx ‘The Valley of the Oaks’.