St Runius Church
A few weeks ago someone from the USA saw my photos of Marown Church on Flickr and asked me a little about his possible Lewney/Lawney/Looney ancestors buried there. I pointed out that it would not have been there, but in the yard of the old church, based on when they left the island. And so, today, I went up to old St Runius with my camera as it was a dry day.
Here is a little about the church, but you get the idea from the board by the entrance gate -
This is the view of the church from the gate - this is the east end.
You can see an earlier doorway in that wall - unusual to find in the east end - but then it wasn't always the east wall - you can see the remains of the older keeil as lines in the grass if you look - there is still one course of stones surviving.
Just around the corner on the left there - under the window near the current east wall, you see this -
Which was an entrance to the older church at one time.
The entrance is, as expected, on the west wall. Unexpectedly there is a set of stone steps above it -
These days those steps give easier access to the bell rope - but you can see that there was once a door at the top, so I guess there might once have been a small choir balcony, but there is no sign of it inside now.
At the corner to the left of the steps there was once a window - or possibly a different door. You can see it more clearly inside.
So - to the interior -
There are no windows at all in the north wall - but four in the south one which provide all the natural light. Along the north wall is a row of pegs, currently decorated with greenery left from the harvest last month.
This is the area to your left as you come in through the door - where tere was clearly an earlier door or window, now occupied by the font.
There is a holy water stoup in the back wall, too.
As you can see in the interior shot, lighting is entirely by candles -
I'm really not sure when those were made. There was a bit of a refit in the mid nineteenth century - I think they may well date from then.
In that long shot of the interior you can see, at the right, a couple of stone crosses -
Not a lot remains of the decoration on the right hand one - the left hand one is looking pretty good considering it is 7th century....
And on the north wall you can see a plaque set into the wall - the only one in the whole church as far as I remember. Here it is in close up because I loved it -
It says
Here lies the Body of the Virtuous and Notable Youth Henry Son to John Clucas of Ballanicholas, one of the Academick Students of this ISLE who Departed this Life the 23rd JUNE 1732 Aged 23.
I like the death's head and wings decoration too.
Like many of our old churches - and UK ones too, there is a board listing those who left money to provide alms for the poor of the parish -
I am rather taken with the fact that in the second column there is an entry for interest on arrears!
And I took a close up to show you that in 1789, when John Kewley made a very generous donation, the value of the Manx pound was not tied to that of the British one -
Finally we go back outside.
This is another view of the church yard -
As you can see most of the grave markers were just large pieces of local stone and they have weathered down, losing any inscriptions. I found no Lowneys/Lawneys/Looneys, I fear.
And to finish, because I can't resist a nice gateway -
You see the large slab lintel? I'm guessing, as the gate is pretty new, that that isn't a carved cross. But in the past rune stones like the ones in the church were often used as lintels and only discovered during renovations.
Just at the moment D-d et al are preparing for the last of their 7 Labyrinth performances at the museum - I added a note to the last post to say that they actually changed the scene a little where they had been rounded on by members of the audience!
Here is a little about the church, but you get the idea from the board by the entrance gate -
This is the view of the church from the gate - this is the east end.
You can see an earlier doorway in that wall - unusual to find in the east end - but then it wasn't always the east wall - you can see the remains of the older keeil as lines in the grass if you look - there is still one course of stones surviving.
Just around the corner on the left there - under the window near the current east wall, you see this -
Which was an entrance to the older church at one time.
The entrance is, as expected, on the west wall. Unexpectedly there is a set of stone steps above it -
These days those steps give easier access to the bell rope - but you can see that there was once a door at the top, so I guess there might once have been a small choir balcony, but there is no sign of it inside now.
At the corner to the left of the steps there was once a window - or possibly a different door. You can see it more clearly inside.
So - to the interior -
There are no windows at all in the north wall - but four in the south one which provide all the natural light. Along the north wall is a row of pegs, currently decorated with greenery left from the harvest last month.
This is the area to your left as you come in through the door - where tere was clearly an earlier door or window, now occupied by the font.
There is a holy water stoup in the back wall, too.
As you can see in the interior shot, lighting is entirely by candles -
I'm really not sure when those were made. There was a bit of a refit in the mid nineteenth century - I think they may well date from then.
In that long shot of the interior you can see, at the right, a couple of stone crosses -
Not a lot remains of the decoration on the right hand one - the left hand one is looking pretty good considering it is 7th century....
And on the north wall you can see a plaque set into the wall - the only one in the whole church as far as I remember. Here it is in close up because I loved it -
It says
Here lies the Body of the Virtuous and Notable Youth Henry Son to John Clucas of Ballanicholas, one of the Academick Students of this ISLE who Departed this Life the 23rd JUNE 1732 Aged 23.
I like the death's head and wings decoration too.
Like many of our old churches - and UK ones too, there is a board listing those who left money to provide alms for the poor of the parish -
I am rather taken with the fact that in the second column there is an entry for interest on arrears!
And I took a close up to show you that in 1789, when John Kewley made a very generous donation, the value of the Manx pound was not tied to that of the British one -
Finally we go back outside.
This is another view of the church yard -
As you can see most of the grave markers were just large pieces of local stone and they have weathered down, losing any inscriptions. I found no Lowneys/Lawneys/Looneys, I fear.
And to finish, because I can't resist a nice gateway -
You see the large slab lintel? I'm guessing, as the gate is pretty new, that that isn't a carved cross. But in the past rune stones like the ones in the church were often used as lintels and only discovered during renovations.
Just at the moment D-d et al are preparing for the last of their 7 Labyrinth performances at the museum - I added a note to the last post to say that they actually changed the scene a little where they had been rounded on by members of the audience!