Ward & Lock's descriptive and pictorial guide to the Isle of Man ...

126 Guide to the Isle of Man.gbydhoo ;and if that is not confirmatory evidence of thelegend, nothing will convince sceptically disposed persons.St. Patrick, of course, objected to the doings of this naughtygiant, and reprimanded him ; in return for Avhich the threeleggedmonstrosity threatened to kill the ?aint. That was notto be endured, and the giant vras made the recipient of anecclesiastical curse, so emphatically worded, that he made oneleap from the rocks into the sea, and has never since beenheard of. That being the case, it is not easy to understandhow he came to be buried on the Castle rock ; but then,neither authentic histories nor romantic legends are alwaysconsistent.On the summit of the hill opposite Peel, on the south, isa tower, known as Corriibs Folly, erected nearly sixty yearsEgo by a person named Corrin, who, being a Nonconformist ofa very advanced type, especially disliked the burial service ofthe Established Church, and therefore built this tower as aresting-place in unconsecrated ground for himself, his wife,and two children. We have already noted how members ofvarious denominations lie side by side in the Kirk Braddar.cemetery; and Corrin's objection to consecrated gi-oimd metwith little sympathy from the mass of the islanders. The toweris .50 feet high, and standing on a liill 500 feet high, is a conspicuouslandmark, and is now in the possession of the Boardof Trade, to be preserved for that purpose.Kear the spot where the Folly tower stands, according toecclesiastical tradition, St. Patrick first planted the sign ofthe cross ;and the instant he had raised the sacred emblem,water flowed from the rock, and it has never since ceased toflow. The spring is supposed to be endowed with curativeproperties ;and in the good old times those v/ho came to behealed dropped small pieces of silver into the well as an offeringto the saint, from which practice it came to be known asthe Silver Well. Afterwards, in less rehgious times, thesilver was deposited as a propitiation to the fairies.