Goddard Crovan’s Stone

Down in the valley of St. Mark’s, near a little purling brook, lies the famous granite boulder, weighing between twenty and thirty tons, known by the name of Goddard Crovan’s stone. It was cast into this situation one day by Goddard Crovan, son of Harold the Black, of Iceland, who lived with his termagant wife in a great castle on the top of Barrule. Unable to endure the violence of her tongue, he turned her unceremoniously out of doors. After descending the mountain some distance, imagining herself out of reach, she turned round and began again to rate him so soundly at the full pitch of her voice that, in a rage, he seized on this huge granite boulder, and hurling it with all his might killed her on the spot. This took place about the year 1060.–Cumming.

This stone was broken up and used in building the parsonage house at St. Mark’s, and has been considered effectual as a specific for the cure of a termagant by every occupier.

[Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man (1891) by A.W. Moore]