On the road out of Laxey towards Ballaragh, at the hamlet of Minorca, the road cuts between the remains of two great stone tombs, built about five thousand years ago. For a long time they were thought to be one monument, and for about two centuries they have been called King Orry's Grave.
King Orry, the Manx name for Godred Crovan, was a real Norse ruler who won the island in 1079, and Manx tradition made him the island's greatest king. He has nothing to do with the tombs. But folklore attached him to them firmly, and with him a story that he was murdered at the spot.
That was taken seriously. Culture Vannin records that in the 1850s an English visitor found himself stuck in Ramsey because no coach driver would take him along that stretch of road after dark, whatever he offered. The same writing notes other Orry traditions: that he threw a rock from North Barrule into Bulgham Bay, and that it came back three times before it stayed; and that the Giant's Grave behind Tynwald Hill at St John's is his as well.
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