Balladoole

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Open access all year round with no admission fee; donations to Manx National Heritage welcome. English Heritage membership is not needed here.

ParkingParking not known

The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.

Parking details

There is no car park. MNH says there is parking for 3 to 4 vehicles at the entrance to the signposted Chapel Hill footpath, 400 m up Poyllvaaish Road from the A5 Castletown to Port St Mary road (the turn is 200 m beyond the A28 Ballabeg junction, grid reference SC 2493 6859). No charge or restriction is published, so the status is recorded as unknown. A reviewer asks for better parking.

Driving pin: the MNH page pin (54.079685, -4.681721) on Chapel Hill itself, 38 m from the Google listing; the access guide gives the site as SC 2481 6818. The footpath from the road is about 50 m up a moderate grass slope through a chained farm gate; the site cannot be seen from the road.

By bus: the Castletown to Port St Mary route along the A5; ask to be set down near Poyllvaaish Road or Balladoole Farm, then walk 400 m up a level country road without pavements.

About

Chapel Hill at Balladoole is a small hilltop by the sea near Castletown that holds every main period of Manx prehistory: Mesolithic remains, a Bronze Age burial, an Iron Age hill fort whose wall still rings the summit, an early Christian keeill and burial ground, and a Viking ship burial of 950 to 1050 AD. Gerhard Bersu, a German archaeologist interned on the Island during the Second World War, dug here in 1945 seeking the fort and found the ship grave, a man laid in a wooden vessel with clothes, tools and riding equipment. Cared for by Manx National Heritage, the hilltop is a network of mown grass paths with metal plaques, the ship outlined in white stones at the entrance and the keeill's low walls at the western end. Reviewers rate the keeill among the best preserved on the Island and praise the views, though several call the site modest and allow an hour, not an afternoon. Visitors warn that parking is limited and the path can be muddy.

Check today’s timesSee all times

BalladooleSee opening notes

Opening times may change at short notice.

Open access all year round; no admission fee. Donations to Manx National Heritage are welcome. The land is not owned by MNH and visits are at your own risk.

No toilets or visitor facilities. The footpath is entered through a large wooden farm gate held with a chain; push it open and secure it again. It climbs about 50 m up a moderate hill on short grass that is uneven, narrow and steep in places, with overgrown verges and rabbit holes, and is slippery when wet; keep to the left-hand, narrower path. On top, mown grass paths with rabbit holes lead round the features, marked by metal plaques. No vehicular access to the hilltop.

Observe the Isle of Man Country Code: wear stout footwear, expect changes in weather and do not rely on mobile reception.

Photo: the stone outline of the Viking ship burial on Chapel Hill, Balladoole, looking out to sea. Krage52, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Balladoole_Isle_of_Man.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.