Crosh Mooar

Did the fairies truly play tricks at Crosh Mooar? Crosh Mooar, the “great deceiving cross,” sits near a stone circle and the evocatively named “honey pool,” Poyll Vill. These names themselves hint at a place steeped in folklore. Old Manx tales speak of travelers bewildered by illusions at Crosh Mooar. One story tells of a man walking from Port Erin one moonlit night. He saw the road clearly. He walked towards Crosh Mooar but somehow ended up back at the gate, his journey mysteriously reset. Another tale recounts a late-night traveler who, near Crosh Mooar, heard laughter and revelry. Approaching Poyll Vill, he witnessed a grand gathering of finely dressed gentlemen and ladies, dancing and playing games. They paid him no mind. He continued to Cregneish, leaving the merrymakers to their nocturnal festivities. Yet another story tells of a Mull man, seized by fairies at Crosh Mooar. They carried him towards Poyll Vill, where a commanding figure intervened, scolding the fairies and ordering them to release the man. He was promptly set free, sent hurrying away “before the wind.” Some speculate that Crosh Mooar earned its name from these vanishing fairy crowds, deceiving those who sought them. The tales paint a vibrant image of Crosh Mooar as a liminal space. A place between the mundane and the magical, where the veil between worlds seems thin.