Tynwald Hill Fields

The fields AROUND Tynwald Hill (not the protected Hill itself). WHY THIS IS EXTRAORDINARY: Tynwald has hosted IoM's annual parliamentary assembly since at least 979 AD. Every single year for over 1,000 years, crowds have gathered here. Major fairs and markets accompanied the assembly — merchants, craftsmen, entertainers, pickpockets, and ordinary citizens converging from across the island. In the medieval period, Tynwald Day was the biggest event of the year. That's 1,000+ annual events × hundreds/thousands of attendees × items dropped, lost, stolen, discarded = an ENORMOUS archaeological resource. The fields surrounding the Hill are where crowds overflowed, where tents were pitched, where horses were tied up, where temporary market stalls were erected. These fields have seen only sporadic detecting. CAUTION: The Hill and its immediate enclosure are Scheduled Monuments — do NOT detect on them. The adjacent farmland fields are fair game with landowner permission.