Manalur Ayyappankavu temple is located on the Kanjani – Guruvayur road and is around 2 km from Kanjani in Thrissur district, Kerala. The 8-day temple festival ends with arattu on Uthram nakshatra in Makaram month.
Ayyappa in the temple is in grihasthashram with wife and son. The Upa Devatas worshipped in the temple Ganapathy and Nagam. The keezhedam of this temple is Parikkal Bhagavathy temple.
This temple is mentioned in the thottam pattu and thus it is one among the 108 Ayyappa temples in Kerala.
The shrine is a big temple with gopuram, nalambalam, valiya ambalam, pond, flag post and nadapura.
There are two versions regarding the history of the temple – one states that the temple belonged six Nair families. Another version is that the temple was captured from Namboothiris by Kochi king and was given to Nair padayalikal (Nair soldiers).
The temple is now maintained by a committee of villagers.