Chibbyr Drine (38) – Malew

Information

Chibbyr Drine, Malew.  Thorn Tree Well.

A spring of fresh water about half a mile North of Langness farmhouse, Malew, on the margin of high-water mark. Its name suggests votive offerings, but I have heard of none. It is certainly not an ordinary domestic well.

(text source: W Walter Gill, A Manx Scrapbook (1929)

Chibbyr Drine is ‘good for the eyes’.  Possibly once it possessed an adjacent thorn tree but most of our place-names containing the terms ‘drine’ (blackthorn) and ‘skeg’ (whitethorn) are field names signifying merely a thorny piece of ground.

Chibbyr Drine and Baldrine in Lonan may have been remarkable for single blackthorns of importance…but the history of their respective names has long been forgotten.

(text source: Folklore of the Blackthorn by WW Gill, The Journal of the Manx Museum Vol V, June 1942, No.66)

Location

About half a mile North of Langness farmhouse, Malew.  The well is no longer evident.

Grid reference: SC28565 66906 (approx)

What3Words: shrug.snag.heartburn (approx).  Toggle to satellite view by clicking on globe bottom r/h corner.

Access

The well is no longer evident.

Links

NLS OS 6″ Sheet XVI Surveyed: 1868 Published: 1870

Contact

If you have any information on this well please contact me and quote well record number (38) as this will help identify which well you are referring too.