Folklore & legend

The Devil's Den and the Spellbound Prince

Also known as: King Orry asleep under Barrule

Devil's Den, near South Barrule

Somewhere under the side of Barrule, the story goes, is a cavern called the Devil's Den. A prince lies inside, held by spells that will last six hundred years. Animals are terrified when they come near the entrance and will not go in. Some people said they had seen a dragon with fiery eyes going down into it.

Not far away, Moore says, was a small lake with a stone in the middle that had once carried a cross. People passing at night heard music there that did not come from any earthly instrument. The fairies, it was believed, came to the lake to hold the funerals of good people.

By the twentieth century the sleeping prince had become King Orry, the half-legendary Norse king who founded the Kingdom of Man and the Isles. In that version he lies spellbound in the Devil's Den and will wake after a thousand years or more to rule again, like Arthur in his cave.

South Barrule has public paths from the Round Table and Ballamodha roads; the den itself is not precisely located.
Evidence
Long-standing local tradition
Access
Public footpath only
Location
54.148, -4.672 (Parish-level only, treat as an area)

Sources: A.W. Moore, "The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man" (1891), ch. III Fairies and Familiar Spirits (Manx Note Book transcription) [public-domain]; A.W. Moore, "The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man" (1891), ch. V Triage, Witchcraft, &c. (Manx Note Book transcription) [public-domain]; Culture Vannin, "King Orry, the three-legged giant" (2019) [other]

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