The Earl of Rone Combe Martin | Combe Martin History and Heritage | Photo at Combemartinvillage.co.uk 2023-2024

The Hunting of the Earl of Rone

Combe Martin, North Devon, UK

Explore the Fascinating Tradition and its History

Modified on August 04, 2024

Combe Martin Earl of Rone Festival 2023, combemartinvillage.co.uk

Listen to the Earl of Rone theme music. It's loud, so start with the volume set low➡

Introduction

The historic Hunting of the Earl of 'Rone (Tyrone) festival is an old yet evolving community Tradfolk event, unique to Combe Martin, North Devon.

The Earl of Tyrone is supposed to have been a political refugee captured in a local wood by Grenadiers. The complex symbolism and reenactment of this Ascensiontide ritual have evolved over time.

Our photos and video of the festival can be found at the end of this article ↓

The annual theatrical event takes place over the last four days of every spring bank holiday weekend, at the end of May. It features costume actors, mummers or guisers, a band and drums, and melodians.

The enigmatic Earl wears a sack costume and a painted mask, and is led by dancers, drummers and a band.

Watched by hundreds of spectators, the captured Earl is placed backwards on a donkey, then paraded, 'shot', and heckled through the streets of Combe Martin. The parade pauses at the Pack o' Cards Inn.

Parading prisoners on a donkey served various purposes throughout history, from ritual punishment to symbolism. Holding the Donkey's tail, captives were subjected to public ridicule and humiliation.

The biscuit necklaces in this folk play, and the donkey decorated with flowers and biscuits, all suggest the ceremonial sacrifice inherent in this tradition.

The cavorting hobby horse, crafted from a wooden frame covered in sacking, is believed to symbolise fertility in traditional folklore. With snapping jaws, the ‘Obby-Oss’ costume is adorned with brightly coloured ribbons and a lengthy tail.

Always a colourful and surreal event, Combe Martin's traditional folk culture pageant was banned in 1837 for 'licentious behaviour'. It was restarted in the early 1970s.

While its true origins are lost to time, this enduring folk play—a beloved tourist attraction—incorporates elements that can be interpreted as pagan. Perhaps it even symbolises themes of fertility and resurrection.

Its old cultural traditions have been preserved, as the much-celebrated Combe Martin 'Obby-Oss' still dances and sways through the packed streets. The frantic 'Fool' or 'Teaser' incites and guides the 'Obby-Oss' on its journey.

The Fool suggests curiosity, potential, and the courage to embrace the unknown. In summary, the elaborate colourful costumes and rituals help to imbue the festival with a sense of mystery and pageantry.

Background

The legend surrounding the #EarlofRone, often attributed to Irish Gaelic lord Hugh O’Neill (1550-1616), is based on stories claiming that the fugitive arrived on a skiff near Combe Martin and sought refuge in the village while en route to exile.

Over time, the original meaning has faded, and the ‘Hunting’ has gradually transformed into a festive gala.

Before 1837, the Earl of Rone festival lasted a whole week and, according to old texts, it seems to have been much more rowdy and rougher than the modern revival.

The elaborate local custom originally centred on an Elizabethan Irish lord, and traditionally took place locally on the May Ascension Day.

Hugh O’Neill, also known as the “Great Earl”, had led a coalition of Irish clans in resisting the Tudor conquest of Ireland by the English Crown, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

O'Neill fled in what became known as the 'Flight of the Earls'.

When he was found in Combe Martin, the Earl had a string of sea biscuits around his neck, on which he had been living.

Sea biscuits have long since featured in the Combe Martin Earl of Rone festival.

At the end of the folk play, the prisoner is summarily 'executed' by the Grenadiers and thrown into the Bristol Channel. No-one is actually harmed.

Visit the official Earl of Rone website for details ˃

Pictures of The Hunting of the Earl of Rone in Combe Martin

Along with this summary of the festival, we have posted our own Earl of Rone photographs and video. In addition, we have received a remarkable video of this festival from 1998 which can be viewed here: Earl of Rone Festival 1998 ˃

Several videos of the festival have been posted on YouTube over the years.

The Earl of 'Rone Mummers and Regalia

The pageant's guisers or mummer costumes, along with regalia and the hobby horse, can be seen along with videos and signage in the village museum.

The costumes and proceedings are slightly different to the originals up to 1837. You can find out more from the staff at Combe Martin Museum, where you can also watch a documentary video.

Donkeys in Folklore and Festivals

Donkeys feature in pagan festivals due to their association with nature, cycles, and ancient traditions. They have played a role in various pagan festivals across different cultures.

The Legend of the Earl of 'Rone

Over a century ago, visiting travel-writers Fred J. Snell (1906) and cohort doubted whether more than a few Combe Martin 'shammickites', or visitors, had any inkling of the history or what they were celebrating.

Nowadays the festival is widely reported in the press and online; and Combe Martin's Earl of Rone Council ensures the annual custom and its history remain in the public eye. Visit The Hunting of the Earl of Rone website for more details.

Over a century ago, what most of Combe Martin remembered about its hunted bête noire folk play is that in 1565 an insurrection broke out in Ireland. It was led by Irish patriot Shane O 'Neill (1530-1567), the chieftain son of the Earl of Tyrone (Snell., J.F., 1906).

The second rebellion was led by James Fitzgerald in 1568 and then by Gerald Fitzgerald in 1579. A third rebellion was led by Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, in 1598 (Snell, J.F., North Devon, 1906).

The Red Hand of Ó Néill

A number of Devon adventurers offered to conquer and hold a province in Ireland at their own expense, if Queen Elizabeth I would give it to them. Early in the reign of James I, the 'Red Hand of Ó Néill' suffered brief captivity in England, and Combmartin folklore holds that he landed from a skiff on her shore (ibid).

Frederick J. Snell's Old Text

The "hunting" of this shadowy, mythical refugee Earl was the pretext of the Ascensiontide sport in old Combmartin (Snell, F.J., 1906, North Devon, pp. 56-59). Snell notes that, historically, such 'pagan merriment' was unpopular with Church authorities across the British Isles.

Pre-Christian rituals were discouraged and suppressed, as they were considered incompatible with Church doctrine.

Presland's Graphic Account of the Festival (1917)

While Hunting the Earl of Rone in Combe Martin had been banned in 1837 and only restarted in 1970, in the early twentieth-century it was still in local memory and renowned across the country.

In his account of Combe Martin's nineteenth-century Earl of 'Rone festival, literary tourist John Presland described the defunct festival in his book, Lynton and Lynmouth: A Pageant of Cliff and Moorland (1917):

"In the Ascensiontide sports, the Earl wore a grotesque costume: a mask, and a smock padded with straw. Round his neck was a chain of sea-biscuits. He had with him a hobby-horse, and a buffoon covered with fantastic trappings".

"There was also a "mapper" or "snapper"; representing the teeth and jaws of a horse. The Earl also rode a donkey decorated with flowers and with a necklace of sea-biscuits".

"The hunters wore a sort of fantastic grenadier costume. A few days before Ascension Day this strange cortege went in procession round the neighbourhood".

The ceremony on Ascension Day happened as follows: The Earl of Rone hid in Combe Martin's Lady Wood at the top of the village, and was there pursued by the soldiers, fired upon, and captured.

He was then placed on the donkey, with his face towards the tail, and led into the village, accompanied by the fool and the hobby-horse.

They made several halts on the way, according to Presland "this was supposed to be reminiscent of the Stations of the Cross in more pious ages".

At each stage the Earl was again fired upon and fell wounded from his donkey, mourned by the fool, but to the delight of the many spectators. The Pack o' Cards Inn continues to be one of those stations.

Finally he was replaced by the fool, and "the affair became a mere matter of buffoonery without special significance" (Presland).

Contributions were levied from the public, and enforced by the "mapper," by which they were seized and held until they had paid (Presland, 1917).

Pay Up or Get the Dirty Besom

Presland (1917) said the fool also carried a besom or broom, which he dipped in the gutter, and with which he sprinkled the recalcitrant. Fred J. Snell in his book North Devon (1906) is in general agreement; adding that a gutter ran along the street, in which the fool dipped the besom or broom.

If anybody declined to donate, they were sprinkled with dirt. If they still did not pay up, they were grabbed by the hobby-horse with his "mapper," and held until the ransom was paid.

The Modern Spring Bank Holiday Show in Combe Martin

The four-day revelry, complete with drummers, a band and dancers, alludes to other trad folk customs such as Mummers' or guisers' folk plays with a hobby horse. Traffic is traditionally halted during the proceedings.

In Combe Martin's evolving modern festival, the proceedings are nearly the same as they were in the nineteenth-century. Many of the players wear a string of sea-biscuits. The 'Earl' is a live actor and the gaudy Fool carries a besom or broom.

The colourful hobby horse dances and sways through the streets as the Earl is brought down to Combe Martin harbour. At the finale, the hapless prisoner is paraded and heckled on Combe Martin beach. Summarily 'executed', he is symbolically carted off by the Grenadiers to be thrown into the sea.

The Future of the Earl of Rone Festival in Combe Martin

Change is happening under tourism commodification and a proliferation of holiday lets and second homes. The village is fighting to preserve its heritage, while Combe Martin's sustainable community and local memories fade.

This colourful Earl of Rone festival has deep historical roots. And while some critics label this folk tradition as “atavistic", the majority disagrees.

The local Earl of Rone Council and locals celebrate this tourist attraction as an “ongoing, evolving tradition”. The streets are lined with spectators every year, and the ritual continues to fascinate journalists and visitors.

In conclusion, while other Devon festivals and folklore have been lost, the modern Earl of Rone folk play has drawn crowds and journalists for many decades. Currently at least, this historic tradition appears to be safe.

The Padstow 'Obby 'Oss Festival

In Padstow, Cornwall, the 'Obby 'Oss festival takes place each 1st of May. It’s a lively folk custom where two separate processions wind their way around the town.

Not quite the same as the Earl of Rone nor as symbolic, the Padstow processions feature an eponymous hobby horse known as the 'Obby 'Oss.

External websites:

Visit the official #EarlofRone website at Https://earl-of-rone.org.uk/.

Customs uncovered: The Hunting of the Earl of Rone - Tradfolk.

Home | Devon Folk.

View our photographs and video of the annual The Earl of Rone festival in Combe Martin ↓

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