‘Praying the Keeills'.
Rhythm, meaning and experience
on pilgrimage journeys in the Isle of Man.

Maddrell, Avril

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of ‘the travelling being’ through the lens of pilgrimage walks in
the Isle of Man in the British Isles. Focusing on pilgrimage offers a particular spiritually-inflected
perspective on the experience of travel and associated meaning-making. The pilgrimage walks
studied centre on the sites of small sixth to twelfth century chapels, known as keeills, which are
scattered across the Manx landscape, and provide a focus for ecumenical reflection and celebration
of Celtic Christian heritage. Participants’ experience of two different forms of pilgrimage walks are
analysed using qualitative techniques, with reference to embodied and affective experience, mobilities,
rhythm, meaning-making and belief. While all participants appreciated the experiences of walking
in the landscape, companionship, heritage expertise, and time-space for reflection, individual sense
of ‘journey’ and experience, including a sense of the onward journey or what was ‘taken home’,
was deeply inflected by the presence or absence of belief. Pilgrimage narratives offer insight to the
meanings ascribed to and derived from the experience of spiritually inflected mobilities and rhythms,
as well as the arrhythmia pilgrimage can represent relative to secular worldviews, and the arrhythmia
non-believers may experience and negotiate when participating in pilgrimage walks.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2011
• Deposit Date: Dec 17, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 23, 2016
• Journal: Landabrefid
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Pages: 15-29
• Keywords: keeills, walking, rhythm, pilgrimage, journey
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/970002
• Publisher URL: http://landfraedi.is/landabrefid/2011/Landabrefid_2011_AM.pdf
• Related Public URLs: http://landfraedi.is/landabrefid/landabrefid-2011/
• Contract Date: Jun 23, 2016