Newsletter
Cronk Keeill Abban is one of four historically recorded assembly sites in the Isle of Man (the others being at Tynwald Hill and Castle Rushen and Renurling).
The earliest reference to this site is in the Statute Books, which record acts passed by Tynwald: at a court ‘holden at Killabane’ in 1429 ‘trial by combat’ was abolished. The exact location of the assembly site is not clear, and the present circular dry stone enclosure was constructed in 1929 to commemorate its existence. Historically the spot was visited every year by parishioners of Braddan who would walk around the site giving three cheers. A burial mound may have acted as the focus for the assembly, much as at Tynwald Hill itself, giving rise to the application of the place name (a ‘cronk’ is a small hill) but no trace of this now survives. A cross slab and lintel graves at St Luke’s Church may indicate the location of Keeill Abban, the landmark for which the mound was named.
Keeill Abban may have been the location of a regional Tynwald assembly for the southern sheadings of Garff, Middle and Rushen. Its position close to the routeway known as the Via Regia (Lezayre) would have facilitated access.
Text from 'A Guide to the Archaeological Sites of the Isle of Man' by Andrew Johnson and Allison Fox.
