[Yn Lioar Manninagh Vol 1 p179]

CORRESPONDENCE.

WERE THERE EVER DRUIDS IN THE ISLE OF MAN?

I have often been asked this question in the Island ; but I did not expect to be able to produce a definite fact so soon to show that Man had her Druids like other Celtic lands. I have been staying the last few days at Mr. Kelly’s, at Ballaqueeney, in Rushen. He has two Ogam stones at the house. I have visited them every time I have been in the Island, as one of them had a portion I could not read. Now I am happy to say that we have got the stone so clear that there is no longer any doubt in my mind about a single score of the Ogam. It reads as follows

‘That is to say, the place or the stone "of Dovaido, son of [the] Druid," or the Charmer, for the ancient Druids of these Islands were just the charmers and herb doctors of their day. So perhaps the above question might be altered into the following :—Has the Isle of Man ever been without its Druids?

JOHN RHYS.