Praying the Keeills 2007 May 07

Keeill sites and remains of keeills are at the heart of the Manx landscape, representing a tangible link with our Christian heritage. By waterfalls, on the cliff tops and in the wooded stillness of the glens, holy men built their keeills as the focus of lives dedicated to prayer and contemplation. We need to rediscover something of that life of prayer and contemplation. We need to rediscover stillness as we wait to hear the voice of God in the clamour of our world.

Keeills served a variety of purposes - family chapels, wayside shrines, places of retreat and hermitage. There have perhaps been as many as 250, but remains, or known sites, survive for less than half this number.

The keeills were small buildings of earth and stone, very rarely bigger than 3 metres by 5 metres internally, and now survive to a height of less than a metre.

None of the remains can be shown to be older than the eighth century but the sites and burials can date back to the sixth century, or earlier, as shown by the Channel 4 "Time Team" dig at the Speke Keeill.

It is almost certain that Christianity arrived in Mann during the life of St Patrick, but who brought it, and from where, is the cause of great debate. The keeills are often on a mound, surrounded by a circular burial ground, and in general are the places where the wonderful series of Cross Slabs - which are some of the Island's treasures - were found. Not all the crosses, however, are grave markers - some (including the Calf Crucifixion Scene) are the upright front stone of the altar of the keeill.

Many keeills are associated with pre-Christian sites and some were even built over or into Bronze Age Cairns.

They are what our Celtic forebears would have described as being "thin places" where we can draw closer to God.

Prayer and meditation were very important to those who worshipped in or around keeills, as they should be to us.

The information on this page has been reproduced with the permission of the Praying the keeills. It has been taken from "Exploring the Heart of Mann", the Praying the Keeills leaftlet for 2007. On the website, there is a .pdf prayer book of Celtic prayers, readings and reflections.