This is a surprisingly large churchyard cemetery until it is realised that there has been a church on this site since at least the twelfth century. The original churchyard cemetery has been extend to the west as the demand for new grave sites has increased.
The present church dates from around the 1830’s and is very pleasing in its proportions with a polygonal apse and two transept that extend to the roofline of the nave. The external rendering is a bit brutal in marked contrast to the interior which is light and airy. The church is of Gothic design and was commissioned by Bishop Ward.
The greatest treasures of Kirk Michael Parish Church are the cross-slabs dating possibly from the 7th to 11th centuries, found in various burial-places in the parish, though most are from the vicinity of the church. After being gathered together from their original sites, the crosses and slabs were first assembled inside the handsome lychgate at the entrance of the Churchyard. This was opened in 1907 by Lady Raglan, the wife of the Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man.
The churchyard contains a proton of the chancel wall from an earlier church on this site. Set into this preserved portion of chancel wall is a plaque with the following inscription:
THIS CHANCEL WAS REBUILT
at the Sole Expense of
the Rev. Doctor Thomas Wilson
a Native of this Parish and Son
of the Rt. Rev. Thomas Wilson
late Lord Bishop of this Diocese
A.D. MDCCLXXVI
This earlier church was built on the site of a still older Treen Church and burial ground (probably the most important of several Treens in the parish as many traces of early Christian burials have been found in the ground) and burial ground, and the name given to the surrounding ground was Cronk-y-Keillig – ‘the hill of the church enclosure’.
Close to the remains of the chancel wall is the grave of the Rt. Revd. Thomas Wilson D.D., who as Anglican Bishop of Sodor and Man for 58 years between 1697 and 1755.
Inscribed on the monument above the Bishop’s grave are the following words:
THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED BY HIS SON
THOMAS WILLSON D.D. A NATIVE OF THIS PARISH
WHO IN OBEDIENCE TO THE EXPRESS COMMANDS OF
HIS WORTHY FATHER DECLINES GIVING HIM
THE CHARACTER HE SO JUSTLY DESERVED
LET THIS ISLAND SPEAK THE REST
and
SLEEPING IN JESUS
HERE LYETH THE BODY OF
THOMAS WILSON D.D.
LORD BISHOP OF THIS ISLE
WHO DIED MARCH THE 7TH 1755 AGED 93
AND IN THE 58TH YEAR OF HIS CONSECRATION
The churchyard contains the graves of 4 more Bishops of Sodor and Man – Bishops Hildesley, Mason, Crigan and Duesbury.
It should also be noted that there is a lone Commonwealth War Graves Commission grave in the Churchyard. This is the grave of Harold Randolph Ellison who died 10 October 1942, aged 32, while serving as a Marine.
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