Cregneash

{{Infobox UK place

|crown_dependency = Isle of Man

|official_name= Cregneash

|manx_name= Creneash

|coordinates = {{coord|54.0693|-4.7691|display=inline,title}}

| population =

| population_ref = (2006 Census)

|manx_parish= Rushen

|manx_sheading= Rushen

|constituency_manx_parliament= Rushen

|post_town= ISLE OF MAN

|postcode_district = IM9

|postcode_area= IM

|dial_code= 01624

|map_type = Isle of Man

|os_grid_reference= SC189672

|douglas_distance=

|static_image_name= Cregneash Folk Museum 1988.jpg

|static_image_caption=Harry Kelly's cottage and Woodturner's workshop in Cregneash

}}

Cregneash or Cregneish ({{langx|gv|Creneash}}) is a small village and tourist destination in the extreme south-west of the Isle of Man, about {{cvt|1|mi|km|abbr=off|0}} from Port Erin. Most of the village is now part of a living museum run by Manx National Heritage. There are also a number of private homes in the village, but their external appearance is controlled to maintain an older look. The village was also home to prominent Manx language speakers, Edward Faragher and Ned Maddrell.

Living museum

Much of the village forms a "Living Museum" dedicated to the preservation of the traditional Manx ways of life.{{Cite web|title=Cregneash – Creneash|url=https://manxnationalheritage.im/our-sites/cregneash/|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Manx National Heritage}} Officially opened in 1938,{{Cite web|title=Cregneash Village|url=https://www.iomguide.com/cregneashvillage.php#:~:text=History,thatched%20cottages%20join%20the%20conservation.|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Isle of Man Guide}} the Cregneash Folk Village shows the typical way of life of a small Manx village in the 19th century. Many original Manx cottages have been preserved and exhibit Victorian farming and fishing equipment. Historically most of the cottages were thatched, and this is reflected on many of the cottages.{{Cite web|title=CREGNEASH|url=https://www.isleofmanfilm.com/location/cregneash/|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Isle of Man Film}}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

A central museum holds a wealth of historical information, whilst many of the cottages in the village allow visitors to see rural activities performed by museum workers in traditional dress. Harry Kelly's cottage in the centre of the village typifies a Manx villager's home, where weaving or knitting often took place in the living area. In the workshop a blacksmith demonstrates some of the tools and techniques used to make horseshoes and other metal equipment of the time.

Edward Faragher's (known in Manx as Ned Beg Hom Ruy or simply Ned Beg{{Cite book|last=Roeder|first=Charles|title=Skeealyn cheeil-chiollee: Manx folk tales|publisher=Chiollagh Books|year=1993|isbn=1-898613-02-8|editor-last=Miller|editor-first=Stephen|location=Onchan, Isle of Man|pages=1}}) cottage holds an exhibition about the Manx language, as Cregneash was an important location in the survival of the language around the start of the 20th century.

Annual Manx festivals are held in Cregneash and it is home to a flock of the rare four-horned Loaghtan sheep.{{Cite web|title=Cregneash|url=https://www.visitisleofman.com/experience/cregneash-p1291891|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Visit Isle of Man}}

Due to the village's relative isolation from other urban areas on the Island, it is one of the 26 Dark Sky Discovery Sites in the Isle of Man.{{Cite web|title=Dark Sky Discovery Sites|url=https://www.darkskydiscovery.org.uk/dark-sky-discovery-sites/map.html|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Dark Sky Discovery}}

St. Peter's Church in the centre of the village was built in 1878 and still holds regular worship services on Sundays.{{Cite web|title=St Peter's Church|url=http://www.rushenparish.org.uk/about-our-churches/st-peters/|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Parish of Rushen}}

Manx language

Manx as a community language disappeared from most of the Isle of Man in the late 19th century.{{Cite journal|last=Stephen|first=Miller|date=2007|title="Here the Manx language lingers, and may linger some time longer”: Manx and English in Cregneash in 1901|journal=Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie|volume=55}} However it "lingered longer in the more remote areas, such as Cregneash"{{Cite thesis|last=Lewin|first=Christopher|title=The revivability of Manx Gaelic:a linguistic description and discussion of Revived Manx|date=2016|degree=M.Phil|publisher=Aberystwyth University|url=https://www.academia.edu/39715888/The_revivability_of_Manx_Gaelic_a_linguistic_description_and_discussion_of_Revived_Manx}} Many of the last remaining native speakers of Manx that were recorded in the mid-20th century were raised in Cregneash and the surrounding areas.

Manx language poet and author Edward Faragher was born and raised in the village, and wrote extensively about his experiences there, particularly focusing on the practices and attitudes of the older generations of the 19th century:{{Cite book|title=Lioar-lhaih Ghaelgagh : Original Manx Gaelic Prose 1821-1907|date=2014|publisher=Yn Çheshaght Ghailckagh|isbn=978-0-9571825-7-8|editor-last=Lewin|editor-first=Christopher|location=Douglas, Isle of Man|pages=iv-vii}}

I think it a great shame to Manx folk that cannot speak their native language. No doubt the old people of Cregneish were not like some others of their neighbours in the little sea-port towns, with the {{Langx|gv|perery bane|label=none}}, {{Langx|gv|keeir-lheeah|label=none}} knee breeches and {{Langx|gv|carranes|label=none}}, but they were more innocent and kinder to one another; they all used to help one another to get the crops down, and in the harvest helped each other to cut the corn and stack it. There was no word about pay.'[https://chiollaghbooks.com/manxnotes/MN033.pdf I have written a little scitch of my life]': Edward Faragher's 'A Sketch of Cregneish', Manx Notes 33 (2004), edited by Stephen Miller

Ned Maddrell, sometimes called the last native speaker of Manx, was brought up in the village.{{Citation|title=The Death of Manx |url=https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9309&L=GAELIC-L&T=0&F=&S=&P=943|author=Stephen Miller |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624191224/https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9309&L=GAELIC-L&T=0&F=&S=&P=943 |archive-date=24 June 2012|access-date=24 January 2019}} In the summer of 1947 Irish Taoiseach Éamon de Valera visited him at Harry Kelly's cottage in Cregneash as part of his trip to the Isle of Man.{{Cite web|title=Edward Maddrell|url=https://www.imuseum.im/search/collections/people/mnh-agent-94876.html|access-date=24 August 2020|website=iMuseum}} As a fluent speaker of Irish, he had a conversation with Ned Maddrell, the youngest of the last remaining native speakers, with Maddrell speaking Manx and de Valera in Irish.{{Cite web|title=Skeealyn Vannin (Stories of Mann)|url=https://www.imuseum.im/search/collections/archive/mnh-museum-676861.html|access-date=6 August 2020|website=iMuseum}} Maddrell explained his views on the Manx language to de Valera: "I am a Manx nationalist…I don’t mean that we should cut adrift from the Empire, but I think we should preserve what is our own…”

Recordings were later made by the Irish Folklore Commission of Maddrell speaking in Manx at his home in Glenchass near Port St Mary.{{Cite web|date=1948|title=Skeealyn Vannin, Disk 2 Track 07iii: Speaker: Ned Maddrell, Glen Chass, Rushen|url=https://www.imuseum.im/search/collections/archive/mnh-museum-675955.html|access-date=7 August 2020|website=iMuseum}}

In the media

The historic village backdrop has been used in film and television shows. Waking Ned Devine was filmed in the Isle of Man and village scenes were shot in Cregneash, which stood in for the fictional Irish village of {{Langx|ga|Tulaigh Mhór|label=none}} (Tullymore).{{Cite web|title=Waking Ned (Waking Ned Devine) {{!}} 1998|url=https://www.movie-locations.com/movies/w/Waking-Ned.php|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Movie Locations}}{{Cite news|last=Ward|first=David|date=29 March 1999|title=Phoney Ireland awaits boom|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/mar/29/10|access-date=6 August 2020}}

The Manx short film Solace in Wicca was shot in various Manx National Heritage locations including Cregneash. The short film was the first production to be shot entirely in Manx Gaelic.{{Cite web|title=Solace in Wicca|url=https://www.culturevannin.im/watchlisten/videos/solace-in-wicca-503426/|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Culture Vannin}}{{Cite web|last=Corkish|first=Lisa|date=20 July 2012|title=CinemaNX and Isle of Man Film Support for the Island’s First Manx Language Production|url=http://www.isleofman.com/News/details/10895/cinemanx-and-isle-of-man-film-support-for-the-island-s-first-manx-language-production|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Isle of Man}}

Other films and television shows that were shot in Cregneash include Rocket's Island, Stormbreaker, Treasure Island, Keeping Mum, and Mindhorn.{{Cite web|title=Filming|url=https://manxnationalheritage.im/visit/venue-hire/filming/|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Manx National Heritage}}{{Cite web|title=Rocket's Island (2012)|url=https://www.isleofmanfilm.com/productions/rockets-island/|access-date=6 August 2020|website=Isle of Man Film}}{{dead link|date=December 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}{{Cite news|date=27 April 2017|title=Mindhorn cast 'comes home' for Isle of Man premiere|work=BBC|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-39694162|access-date=6 August 2020}}

Images

File:Cregneash HarryKellysCottage.jpg|Harry Kelly's Cottage

File:Cregneash Village - The Museum (Cummel Beg) - geograph.org.uk - 1692201.jpg|Cummal Beg Visitor Centre (right) and Creg y Shee Tea Room (left)

File:Several buildings at Cregneash - geograph.org.uk - 784696.jpg|Thatched cottages

File:Bwaane-Ned-Beg-Hom-Ruy.jpg|Ned Beg's House

File:The Joiners Workshop at Cregneash - geograph.org.uk - 1421311.jpg|The Joiner's workshop

File:Cregneash Village - St. Peter's Church north exterior - geograph.org.uk - 1691930.jpg|St. Peter's Church

File:Cregneash Village - St. Peter's Church interior - geograph.org.uk - 1691906.jpg|Interior of St. Peter's Church

File:Loaghtan sheep, Cregneash .jpg|A Cregneash Loaghtan sheep

File:Cregneash Village - Church Farm House - geograph.org.uk - 1690706.jpg|Church Farm House

File:Cregneash Village - Church Farm House interior - geograph.org.uk - 1690707.jpg|Cottage interior, Church Farm

File:Part of the Manx Cottage Garden at Cregneash - geograph.org.uk - 1421320.jpg|Manx Cottage Gardens

Notes

External links

[https://www.imuseum.im/search/collections/archive/mnh-museum-675955.html Ned Maddrell reciting the Lord's Prayer] in Manx

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/cregneash Photos tagged 'Cregneash' on Flickr]
[https://vimeo.com/album/3160879 A Walking tour around Cregneash] with Stanley Karran, produced in 2009 by Culture Vannin

Category:Villages in the Isle of Man

Category:Thatched buildings in the Isle of Man

Category:Tourist attractions in the Isle of Man

Category:Manx language

Category:Culture of the Isle of Man