From ancient times to the present day, horses have played a significant role in the Manx culture, economy, and way of life. In this week's blog, I'll be taking a look at some of the resources at the iMuseum and exploring the history of horses in the Isle of Man.
People have lived on the Isle of Man for 10,000 years and although the exact date at which horses were introduced to the Island is up for debate, it's likely that they were brought to the Island by Celtic settlers.
Throughout the Iron Age and into the medieval period, horses remained an integral part of Manx society. They were used for ploughing fields, pulling carts, and as mounts for warriors and chieftains. Horses also featured in Manx folklore and mythology, with tales of such beasts as the Cabbyl-Ushtey (also known as a Glashtyn) and Mannanan's horse, Enbarr of the Flowing Mane.
The Vikings also relied on horses for heavy farm work and clearly placed great importance on the beasts, as indicated by the ship burial sites at Knock y Doonee and Balladoole, where horses were buried alongside their masters, to accompany them into the afterlife. Manx crosses, created in the early Medieval period, also feature horses being ridden. These can be viewed online at the iMuseum or at various sites around the Island. My favourite place to view them is the church yard in Maughold (see photo below). Two examples from the iMuseum are Joalf's cross slab and the Maughold cross slab.
Until the age of the combustion engine, horses were vital for transport and heavy farm work. The Island is lucky enough to still have the Douglas horse tram as a link to this past, but at one time, horse and carts would have been seen all over the Island. The iMuseum has many photographs of horse-drawn travel from across the years. A very small selection has been included below:
Photos courtesy of the Manx National Heritage.
I must admit, I was completely oblivious to the fact horse racecourses once existed on the Isle of Man. In fact, the Derby horse race was inaugurated in 1669 by the 7th Earl of Derby, who was Lord of Mann at the time. It was run on the Island at Langness until 1779, after which it was moved to Epsom. That wasn't the end of horseracing on the Isle of Man however, as Strang and Bellevue racecourses were created in Douglas 1870 and 1912 respectively, and racing was still occurring on the Island in the 1970's at the Great Meadows course in Castletown.
Photos courtesy of Manx National Heritage
Many of the Island's horses were sent to the Western Front during the First World War. The Ramsey Courier on Friday 14th August 1914 reported that the War Office had sent a requisition to the Isle of Man for the supply of a hundred horses for military purposes. Horses were sent from across the Island, including from the Douglas Corporation and the Steam Packet Company, and travelled to England by steamer from Ramsey. Many of these horses never returned, with eight million horses thought to have been lost in total during the war. The impact on the Manx farms and families that lost these animals must have been immense. One Manx soldier apparently met a horse that had been taken from his farm, on the frontline in this account on isleofman.com.
The Manx word for horse is cabbyl and can be found in place names on the Island, such as Giau-ny-Cabbyl (Cove of the Horse, which is where horses were shipped or landed when travelling to and from the Calf of Man) and Cabbyl Veg (Little Horse) a coastal rock in Patrick. Apparently, Peel Hill used to be known as Horse Hill and the rocks below Peel castle are still referred to as Horse Rock. The Manx word for foal is sharragh and appears in names such as Knocksharry (Foal's hill) and Sharragh Vane (White Foal), a well known block of white quartz in the hills near Druidale. The Manx word for stallion (collagh) also appears in Manx place names such as Close-ny-Chollagh (Enclosure of the Stallion).
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