Ballabeg, Lonan Ballabeg, Lonan There are about eight small places on the Isle of Man with the name Ballabeg. The name Ballabeg derives from the Manx which means small homestead; although the spelling is different, it is pronounced approximately the same as the English name. This article is about the hamlet of Ballabeg in the parish of Lonan, on the east of the island. The settlement dates from at least 1643, when a "Ballabegg" was recorded on the Castle Rushen Manorial Roll, under the ownership of Furness Abbey. It is about 300 metres from the sea shore. Ballabeg in Lonan is located
Hunt the Wren monster rat, for the wren.' By the 1890s the practice of capturing a wren was seen as rare and instead just the wren pole was being taken around the houses with singing. By the 1900s the practice remained common, with numbers of separate groups going around to Hunt the Wren in Onchan, Castletown, Douglas, Peel, Port St. Mary and Kirk Michael, and one group going to Hunt the Wren in Ramsey. Despite reports of it as 'dying out' in the 1930s, the practice of singing around the houses with the wren pole was still taking place in 1975, though it