Day 67

Tuesday 5th July 2016

Today is Tynwald Day on the Isle of Man - a national holiday! What is it you ask?

Tynwald Day (Manx: Laa Tinvaal) is the National Day of the Isle of Man, usually observed on 5 July.
On this day, the Island's legislature, Tynwald, meets at St John's, instead of its usual meeting place in Douglas. The session is held partly in the Royal Chapel of St John the Baptist and partly in the open air on the adjacent Tynwald Hill (a small artificial mound). The meeting, the first recorded instance of which dates to 1417, is known as Midsummer Court. It is attended by members of the two branches of Tynwald: the House of Keys, and the Legislative Council. The Lieutenant Governor, the representative of the Lord of Mann, presides except on the occasions when the Lord of Mann or another member of the British Royal Family is present.
All bills that have received Royal Assent are promulgated on Tynwald Day; any Act of Tynwald which is not so promulgated within 18 months of passage ceases to have effect. Other proceedings include the presentation of petitions and the swearing in of certain public officials. - taken from Wikipedia.

This sounded like a good day. We were able to walk along the old railway line from Peel to St Johns. I should also mention that we had met with our dear friends Susan and Ian. We all walked along the railway line to St Johns.



As you can see it is quite a mound and a little more information about the background of it. The main ceremonies of the day take place on Tynwald Hill, known in the Manx language as Cronk-y-Keeillown, or the Hill of the Church of John, in the village of St John's. This mound is said to include soil from all 17 of the Island's parishes. The mound, approximately 12 feet (3.7 metres) in height, includes four circular platforms, which are of successively decreasing size, thereby giving Tynwald Hill a somewhat conical shape.
There was a path leading to the church. The path is strewn with rushes; the tradition is traceable to the Celtic custom of propitiating the sea god Manannan by offering bundles of rushes on Midsummer's Eve. I was unaware of this and when I was walking back to the boat I asked a family about the rushes and they were taking some away. "Oh you must go and get some" I was told " You take some and place in your house and you will have good luck all year" The lady then gave me some. I thanked her and asked if they would work on a boat. She assured me they would and was really pleased to think that they would be going on a boat!

There were lots of stalls - a fair and even a viking village! We spent some time talking to a very enthusiastic young viking lady who filled us in on the history. I hadn't realised but the Isle of Man had viking roots. The richness of the Island’s farmland attracted the Vikings. Situated in the middle of the Irish Sea it was an important area to control. It had safe harbours for ships and was a good place to launch attacks on other coastal areas. The Vikings settled throughout the Island and wealthy Viking warriors came to own the best farming lands. The Manx Loaghtan is a breed of sheep native to the Isle of Man - a very old breed similar to the ones the vikings would have had. Apparently they would "throw" sheep ashore where they thought a good place so they could always come back to them. They were used for food, wool for clothes and horns (they have between 4 and 6) for drinking vessels.

I am really enjoying (and boring you all) with the history of the places we visit.

When we walked back to the boat we were talking to local people we met. They have such a sense of pride about their island and their history. To see so many people out for Tynwald day was fantastic. I only wish that sometimes the English would take a look at some of the other communities and take heed.

Another ting I hadn't realised was the the Isle of Man is not part of the UK. In 1266, the island became part of Scotland by the Treaty of Perth, after being a part of Norway. After a period of alternating rule by the kings of Scotland and England, the island came under the feudal lordship of the English Crown in 1399. The lordship revested into the British Crown in 1765, but the island never became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain or its successor the United Kingdom, retaining its status as an internally self-governing Crown dependency.