The annual memorial to Illiam Dhone will this week today focus on sustainability and the environment.

A service is held every year on January 2 at Hango Hill, the site where Manxman Illiam Dhone was executed in 1663 for high treason. He was shot despite the Indemnity and Oblivion Act which was a general pardon for actions taken during the English Civil War.

Largely regarded today as a Manx patriot, Dhone’s execution split opinion at the time when he was considered by some to be a traitor.

This year’s service, due to be held at 2pm, will, as ever, be done in Manx and English.

Chairman of Mec Vannin, the Manx nationalist party, Mark Kermode will lead this year’s service and deliver the Manx oration.

Paul Craine and Devon Watson will both speak, in English, about climate change, sustainability and people’s responsibilities to the planet.

The service is often widely attended, regardless of the weather at the exposed spot near Castletown.

In recent years, speakers have included Dr John Callow who provided a historical take on the events surrounding Dhone’s execution and Bill Henderson MLC who used the occasion to call for the British Museum to return the Chronicles of Mann. It refused.

After the service, attendees are invited to gather in The Compton Vaults in Castletown.