Balladoole and Chapel Hill

The Viking period on the Isle of Man stretches from around 850-1265 AD. The first Norse king, Godred Crovan, came to rule the Island, after the Battle of Skyhill, in 1079.

The Viking burial ship, at Balladoole, dates from the beginning of this period around 950AD. The ship was about 36 feet long and contained the bodies of a man and a woman together with clothes, tools and riding gear. These artefacts are now in the Manx Museum. The outline of the ship is marked with stones.

It was first excavated in 1945 by Gerhard Bersu, a German refugee who led a team while interned on the Island. It was revisited  in 1974.

Nearby, on Chapel Hill, is a Keeill dedicated to St. Michael and lintel graves from around 900AD, a Celtic Iron Age Fort from the first centuries AD and a Bronze Age Cist (grave) from around 1000BC.