Isle of Man

Flora.

Like the fauna, the flora is chiefly remarkable for its meagreness. It contains at most 45o species as compared with 690 in Jersey. Alpine forms are absent. But what it lacks in variety it makes up in beauty and quantity. For the profusion of spring flowers, the Isle of Man is famous.

The Peopl.

The centre of the island retains remnants of an early population, mainly short, dark and long headed, while the coastal areas are said to show a broad-headed element, tall and well-built with dark features. A survey is, however, greatly needed. The majority of the population, however, show marked Nordic characters—tall, fair, with light eyes, undoubtedly due to the large Scandinavian settlements reinforced by later immigrants both Norman and English. The total population of the island in 1931 was but visitors considerably augment this total.

History and Early

earliest evidences of man on the island are probably to be found in the numerous flint chipping floors along the coasts and elsewhere. Such floors are found near Ronaldsway, Ballakaighan, German and Port St. Mary. There are evidences of pile dwellings near the foot of Snaefell and Ballakaighan, the latter site has a dug-out boat. Almost all the polished stone axes on the island are of foreign make, a fact that suggests that they were brought as articles of trade and were in use long of ter the period from which they date typologically. Prehistoric burial sites range from Neolithic to Scandinavian.

The position of the island in the western seas suggests that it was a station of no little importance in megalithic times and there are many old stone monuments still surviving, though many of the sites seem to have been occupied both before and of ter this time. Mull Hill circle with its cists in the south of the island is well known. Other stone monuments are found on Bradda moun tain, Spanish Head, the Braid, Marown, the Ballachrink Cairn, Maughold and the famous King Orry's grave in Laxey. The lat ter seems to have maintained a tradition of sanctity down until the dark ages and possibly in the local cults through the middle ages. There are cup and ring markings at Bradan Camp, Oatland Circle and Grainvick bay. The actual Bronze Age discoveries are few, although the variety of objects recorded indicates a repre sentative culture. Traces of the Iron Age both in weapons and

fortifications merge imperceptibly into those of the dark ages and the Scandinavian period.

The history of the Isle of Man during the Celtic period is mainly associated with the spread of Celtic Christianity. During this period the island had a close association with Ireland as the early Christian Keeills or oratories show. Man is rich in sculp tured crosses, and there is a round tower on Peel islet. If the supposed conquest of the Menavian islands—Man and Anglesey— by Edwin of Northumbria, in 616, did take place, the results were hardly permanent. It is, however, possible that in 684, when Ecfrid laid Ireland waste from Dublin to Drogheda, he tempo , rarily occupied Man.

During the period of Scandinavian domination there are two main epochs—one before the conquest of Man by Godred Crovan in 1079, and the other after it. The earlier epoch is characterized by warfare and unsettled rule, the later is comparatively peaceful. Between about Boo and 815 the Vikings came to Man chiefly for plunder; between about 85o and 99o, when they settled in it, the island fell under the rule of the Scandinavian kings of Dublin; and between 990 and 1079, it was subject to the powerful earls of Orkney. The conquerer Godred Crovan was evidently a re markable man, and it seems probable that he is the person com memorated in Manx legend under the name of King Gorse or Orry The islands which were under his rule were called the SuJr-eyjar (Sudreys or the south isles, in contra-distinction to the norYr-eyjar, or the north isles, i.e., the Orkneys and Shet lands, and they consisted of the Hebrides, and of all the smaller western islands of Scotland, with Man. At a later date his suc cessors took the title of Rex Manniae et Insularum. Olaf ( 113– 1152), Godred's son, was a powerful monarch. His son, Godred, who for a short period ruled over Dublin also, as a result of a quarrel with Somerled, the ruler of Argyll, in 1156, lost the smaller islands off the coast of Argyll. An independent sovereignty was thus interposed between the two divisions of his kingdom.