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PLACE NAMES


 
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Ballaugh
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Ballaugh is a small village on the Isle of Man in the parish of the same name, in the sheading of Michael. It is the only village in the parish.
The parish adjoins Jurby to the north, Lezayre to the east, Michael to the south and south-west, and the Irish Sea to the west. It stretches about 5 miles or 8 km from north to south: at the extreme southern end it includes part of Sulby Reservoir, and to the west, it includes part of Bishopscourt, the former house of the island's Bishop.
The name 'Ballaugh' derives from the Manx Balley ny Loghey or "the place of the lake" cognate with loch and lough. The Ballaugh Curraghs is all that remains of this lake. The lake, which measured up to a mile in length, was drained by the excavation about 300 years ago of the silted-up Lhen Trench which, during the last ice age, is believed to have been a meltwater channel flowing north to south from the melting ice front.
In 1819 a nearly fully intact skeleton of an Irish Elk was discovered in bog land by Thomas Kewish and James Taubmann in Ballaugh. The Ballaugh Elk is currently housed at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
An elaborate runic cross dated to the 10th century was discovered in Ballaugh in 1891. It can be viewed in Ballaugh Old Church.
Ballaugh was only connected to the water mains in the early 1950s; until then most residents used the local wells, including one situated in the rear yard of Ellan Vannin, a former coach house with stabling beside the yard.
In recent years the village has expanded, with new housing estates to the north of the village centre.
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