Giant's Grave (St. John's)

The Giant's Grave is a Bronze Age burial mound which today forms a part of the wall on the road behind Tynwald Hill.

The significance of this mound standing first became apparent in 1848 when improvements to the road revealed a burial chamber constructed from large slabs of stone. An account of the discovery describes how workmen found decomposed human remains, probably from a cremation, along with a piece of worked flint. The floor of the cist was packed with a layer of white quartz pebbles and the chamber had been buried within an artificial earthen mound. A further layer of white quartz pebbles had covered the surface of the mound, so that when first built it would have been visible from a considerable distance.

The cist partially collapsed in the 1950s but was reconstructed as close as possible to its original form. The discovery at various times of other burial monuments in the area suggests that a cemetery once existed, which may explain why the site held significance for Scandinavian settlers who not only introduced burials of their own but also created the adjacent assembly site of Tynwald Hill. In local folklore the site is believed to be the burial place of the legendary King of Man, Godred Crovan, hence its alternative name, King Orry’s Grave.

Text from 'A Guide to the Archaeological Sites of the Isle of Man' by Andrew Johnson and Allison Fox.