Bridge Cottage, at Cranstal near Bride, is a thatched traditional Manx cottage registered as a protected building in May 1983, on the same day as its near neighbour Cranstal Cottage, which stands only about a hundred yards away. Together the two thatched cottages form one of the most recognisable clusters of vernacular building survivals on this exposed stretch of the island's northern coast.
Historic house, boathouse and dock on Castletown harbour, associated with the Quayle family and the yacht Peggy.
Bridge House stands across the Silverburn from Castle Rushen. The Quayle family acquired and developed property on the site during the eighteenth century. George Quayle, born in 1751, belonged to this family and became a banker, politician, militia officer and businessman.
Quayle commissioned the yacht Peggy in 1789. The vessel was housed beside Bridge House in a purpose-built boathouse connected directly with the harbour by a private dock. The surviving complex included Bridge House, stables, the boathouse and dock, together with the vessel itself.
The family papers preserve unusually detailed information about the household and Quayle's activities. In 1802 George Quayle, his brother Mark Hildesley Quayle, John Taubman and James Kelly opened the Isle of Man Bank in Castletown. Banking business was conducted from Bridge House.
The present Bridge House dates from 1812, replacing or incorporating earlier buildings on the site. Quayle continued to use the property until his death in 1835.
The Peggy remained in her boathouse after the Quayle family ceased to use the vessel. In 1942 the boat and boathouse were given to the Manx Museum and National Trust, and the site opened as the Nautical Museum in 1951.
In 2015 Peggy was removed from the boathouse for conservation. Archaeological work on the dock exposed further details of the structure and its gate mechanism, which had allowed the vessel to be brought from the harbour directly into the enclosed dock.
Bridge House on Bridge Street was extended by George Quayle around 1809, deliberately built upward and outward to block the view of the sea from the Governor's residence at neighbouring Lorne House after a falling-out between the families; its oldest section dates from the early 18th century. Built of local limestone, the harbour-facing elevation was clad in weatherproof Manx slate because the porous limestone alone offered poor protection from the elements. From 1802 the house served as the base of Quayle's Bank, and today it is used as offices while its former boat house houses the Castletown Nautical Museum, whose centrepiece exhibit is George Quayle's schooner-yacht Peggy.
The Bridge Inn on Bowring Road was a working public house through the late nineteenth century: Ramsey trade directories record it run by William Kermeen in 1883, and by his widow Jane Kermeen (later listed simply as "Mrs Kermeen") through 1889 and 1892. It has since closed as a pub and is recorded on the Isle of Man's Registered Buildings list as a former public house.
Buck House stands at Merton Bank in Douglas and is included on the Isle of Man's Registered Buildings list as an office property. Beyond its registered status, no further verifiable historical detail about its construction date, original use or architect could be confirmed from available sources.
Cabbal Pherick, or Spooyt Vane Keeill, is a ruined early Christian chapel dedicated to St Patrick, standing in Glen Mooar near Kirk Michael and thought to date from the 8th-10th century AD. The site includes a surrounding burial ground and the remains of a priest's cell, with walls surviving up to about a metre high. It lies close to the well-known Spooyt Vane waterfall, one of the highest on the Island.
Cadran Cottage on Ballanard Road is a registered house in Douglas. No further verifiable historical detail about its construction date, original occupants or architectural significance could be confirmed from available sources.
Two 'leading light' towers (High and Low), built 1817-19 and designed by Robert Stevenson, stood 560 feet apart on the Calf of Man to guide ships clear of the Chicken Rock hazard a mile offshore. Both were discontinued in January 1875 when Chicken Rock Lighthouse took over the role. A new manned lighthouse — the last manned lighthouse built by the Northern Lighthouse Board — was constructed between the old towers in 1968, automated in 1995, and finally discontinued in 2007 when Chicken Rock was restored as the primary light.
The Great Union Camera Obscura on Douglas Head is a surviving Victorian tourist attraction, with the first camera obscura structure on the site reported in the Manx Sun in May 1887, built near the old Toboggan Slide. That original wooden structure burned down within the year, and the attraction was not reinstated until the 1896 season. It is now the only camera obscura in the world with eleven lenses, projecting live colour views of the surrounding coastline, and is maintained and opened to visitors in the summer months by volunteers.
Captain John Quilliam, Manx Royal Navy officer who served under Nelson at Trafalgar, is buried in Kirk Arbory churchyard, Ballabeg, where his headstone inscription (quoted in the existing Omeka item) records that by the example of Duncan and Nelson he learned to conquer, and by his own merit rose to command.
Border city in Cumberland which appears in the surviving correspondence surrounding the execution of William Christian in the Isle of Man.
On 16 January 1663 Charles II ordered the Earl of Derby to bring William Christian before the King and Council. The royal order stated that Christian had petitioned against his imprisonment and conviction for treason in Mann and was considered legally capable of receiving royal favour.
The order arrived too late: William Christian had already been executed at Hango Hill on 2 January.
A month later, on 19 February, another William Christian wrote from Carlisle to Secretary Williamson about the affair. He thanked Williamson for favours and expressed the hope that Derby would answer the King's letter, while those responsible for the Manx proceedings would have to answer for their own actions. The letter was endorsed “Concerning the Earl of Derby's proceedings in the Isle of Man.”
The evidence pack does not establish the identity of this second William Christian securely enough to identify him with a particular member of the Manx Christian family. It does, however, show Carlisle as one point from which the aftermath of the Hango Hill execution reached central government.
The Castle Arms Hotel on The Quay, nicknamed 'The Glue Pot', is thought to date from around 1750 and was used by soldiers of the garrison stationed just yards away at Castle Rushen. It was operating as a hostelry by 1845 under the name the Queen's Arms and was known simply as 'the Castle' by 1853. Its nickname is said to derive from smugglers who called in for refreshment and reputedly found it hard to leave. One of the oldest public houses on the Island, it was saved from closure by public outcry in the late 1980s and refurbished in the early 1990s, and it holds the distinction of being the only pub in the British Isles depicted on a banknote, appearing beside Castle Rushen on the Manx five-pound note.
Castle Hill House stands on Castle Hill in Douglas (IM2 4AD) and appears on the Isle of Man's Registered Buildings list. No verifiable historical detail beyond its address and registration could be confirmed online for this specific building, as distinct from other similarly-named buildings on the Island.
Castle Rushen in Castletown is one of Europe's best-preserved medieval castles, with origins likely in the 10th-11th centuries under the Kings of Mann and the Isles; an oak beam dated to 947 was found in its walls during 19th-century repairs. It was besieged and captured by Robert the Bruce in 1313 after a three-week siege, bringing the island briefly under Scottish control. From 1405 to 1738 the Stanley family (Lords of Mann) governed the island from the castle, which also served as an administrative centre, mint, and law court. Its defensive role declined through the 18th century and it was later used as the Isle of Man's prison until 1891. Restored by Manx National Heritage, it reopened as a heritage museum in 1991 and remains a dominant landmark of Castletown, the island's former capital.
Castle Rushen is among the best-preserved medieval castles in Europe, its origins lying in a Norse-period stronghold raised to guard the entrance to the Silverburn River. The keep, the oldest surviving part of the castle, dates to the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, the time of the Kings of Mann and the Isles, and was besieged by Robert the Bruce in the early fourteenth century. The castle was steadily developed over the following centuries: by 1313 the keep had been reinforced with towers, and through the fourteenth century an east tower, gatehouses and curtain wall were added. Beyond its role as a royal residence, Castle Rushen has served over the centuries as a mint, a law court, an administrative centre for the Island's government, and, for more than a hundred years until the late nineteenth century, a prison. It is now run by Manx National Heritage as a museum and educational site at the heart of Castletown.
Castle View, at 1 Parliament Square, is a Registered Building entered on the Protected Buildings Register in 1984. No further documented history was found beyond the bare registration record.
The Castlemona (Castle Mona) was built between 1803 and 1804 as the residence of the 4th Duke of Atholl during his time as Governor of the Isle of Man, designed by the Duke's Perthshire retainer George Steuart and completed at a cost that ran well over budget. Before 1850, Queen Victoria reportedly considered buying the house as a royal residence in preference to what became Osborne House. The building was converted into a hotel in 1831 and, by the mid-twentieth century, had become the Island's premier hotel, hosting its first licensed casino; a further accommodation and dining wing was added in the early 1960s and a bowling alley extension followed in the early 1990s. The 98-bedroom hotel closed its doors in 2006, and although the Sefton Group acquired the building in 2007 with plans to restore it, those plans were never carried through, leaving the once-grand hotel on Castle Drive standing empty in recent years.
Historic capital and harbour town in the south of the Isle of Man, built around Castle Rushen.
Castletown developed at the head of Castletown Bay where the Silverburn enters the sea. Castle Rushen dominated the harbour and provided the seat of government, court, prison and residence of the Governor. The settlement which grew around it became the principal administrative town of the Island.
A church dedicated to St Mary was established at Rushen or Castletown by the thirteenth century. The church was dedicated in 1260 during the episcopate of Bishop Richard. Later descriptions record the old church, chapel and free school among the public buildings of the town.
The castle brought a concentration of officials into Castletown. The Governor, Deemsters, Attorney-General, Clerk of the Rolls and other officers attended courts there, while the House of Keys met close to the castle. Government business therefore took place within a few streets of the harbour.
Castletown bridge was described in the eighteenth century as a stone bridge of handsome breadth, sufficiently high for a boat carrying its mast to pass beneath it. Across the river stood the property later known as Bridge House, associated with the Quayle family and the yacht Peggy.
The harbour connected the town with the southern roadsteads at Derbyhaven and Ronaldsway. Castletown itself was one of the appointed ports of the Island, while nearby Derbyhaven provided a broader natural anchorage. The surrounding district contained many of the Island's principal southern estates and lay close to Rushen Abbey and the fertile plain around Malew.
Markets were held on Saturdays. One eighteenth-century account remarked that butcher's meat was commonly bought by several households joining together to purchase a whole carcass, while herrings and potatoes formed a much more regular part of the diet.
Castletown remained the seat of the Island's government into the nineteenth century, although Douglas increasingly overtook it in population and commerce.
Castletown Corner is the fourth slow right-hander on the Billown Circuit, reached immediately after a fast run through Great Meadow and Stadium Corner on the final stretch back toward the start/finish line at Castletown. Its position at the end of the lap's quickest section makes it a favoured spot for a late outbraking move under overtaking pressure.
Castletown's War Memorial in Market Square was unveiled on 2 August 1923 by the Lieutenant Governor and dedicated by the Bishop, its centrepiece a rough-hewn Celtic cross of stone quarried from W. Kissack's limestone quarry at Scarlett. It was designed by Messrs J. Corrin and Son and built by local monumental masons Mr C. Cubbon and Mr S. Killey. Wall-mounted tablets to the rear record 39 names from the Great War on either side of a further 36 names from the Second World War; the Second World War tablet was added later, unveiled on Remembrance Sunday in November 1949. The inscription reads: "In remembrance / 1914-1918 / Castletown to the memory of her children / who gave their lives in the Great War / see to it that their names be not forgotten."
The Central Hotel on Bowring Road occupies the site of the former residence of High-Bailiff Frederick Tellet, father of the later Dr Tellet, according to local reminiscences published in the Ramsey press; Tellet's house had a large attached garden, and the hotel's stables were later built on the garden's former ground. It operated as a public house for many years, closing temporarily after flooding in December 2015 before reopening in March 2016, and is now recorded on the Isle of Man's Registered Buildings list as a former hotel.
The former Central Hotel stands at the lower end of Broadway, a road linking upper Douglas to the bay, and was reportedly a large red-brick hotel building opening around 1888. It has since been converted into apartments while retaining its Victorian street presence. Detailed archival confirmation of its architect and opening date could not be independently verified from a primary source, so this description is kept cautious.
Chibbyr Feeayr ("Cold Well") is a holy well in the parish of Malew, part of the tradition of sacred wells found across the Isle of Man. Holy wells were visited for healing, divination, and devotion, and many retained their associations with folk religion well into the modern period.
