A modern narrow-gauge railway station. The Isle of Man Railway Company completed its first line between Douglas and Peel in 1873. The 3-foot narrow-gauge system was extended by the completion of a second line between the main station at Douglas and Port Erin in the south-west of the island in 1874.
Separately, the Manx Northern Railway constructed a line from St John's (on the route between Douglas and Peel) in 1879 and from 1886 operated another short line between St John's and Foxdale, exploiting the mining traffic arising from the latter. The railway companies amalgamated in 1904.
The Peel line closed to passenger services in 1968, and to goods traffic the following year; the track was lifted in 1975.
The railway station buildings and platforms remained during the 1980s and 1990s whilst part of the site was used as a seasonal boat-park and boat-yard. The goods shed was adapted as a boathouse for the replica Viking longship, 'Odin's Raven', which sailed from Norway to the Isle of Man in 1979 as part of the Tynwald Millennium celebrations.
In 1995 the site was redeveloped. The construction of the House of Manannan heritage centre incorporates the former railway station building and goods shed.
The Ordnance Survey 1:2500 large scale mapping of 1868 shows a rope works at the grid reference provided, together with the annotation, 'Rope Works'. The grid reference is centred on the site of the building and the rope walk extended for 300m in a SSE direction.
The site is now partially occupied by hardstanding, housing and a decommissioned power station.
Modern saw mill.
The Ordnance Survey 1:2500 first edition mapping of 1868 records a building centred at the grid reference provided, together with the annotation, 'Saw Mill'.
The building was constructed from local red sandstone rubble (quarried from the east end of Peel Bay), and was latterly used for fish processing, before being demolished in the late 1990s.
The site is today occupied by an industrial unit.
A scatter of Mesolithic or Neolithic flints found on the estate of G. Clementson. The exact findspot is unclear but is thought to have been at the old school playground centred on SC249840.
This cave is situated on the rock-face of a minor headland bounding the westerly side of the small beach of Traie Coan near Port St Mary. The site was excavated in 1969-70 and 1975-76 by FJ Radcliffe, who found a midden sealed under slate slabs that had fallen from the roof and overlying an apparently undisturbed beach deposit. A very low 'inner cave' held a similar beach deposit.
The midden contained a considerable number of limpet shells as well as bird and mammal bones. Human bones, apparently from a single adult skeleton, were recovered together with worked bone points. The remains were thought to represent either a prehistoric burial or a victim of a shipwreck.
Radiocarbon dating of carbonised wood in the midden material by Birmingham University suggested a date 1880 +/- 150 BP, or a mean of 70 AD.
Nothing was found to prove that the cave was inhabited but this does not preclude its use for a shelter.
This cave is situated on the rock-face of a minor headland bounding the westerly side of the small beach of Traie Coan near Port St Mary.
The site was excavated in 1969-70 and 1975-76 by FJ Radcliffe, who found a midden sealed under slate slabs that had fallen from the roof and overlying an apparently undisturbed beach deposit, together with human bones, apparently from a single adult skeleton, were recovered together with worked bone points.
The remains were thought to represent either a prehistoric burial or a victim of a shipwreck. Radiocarbon dating of carbonised wood in the midden material suggested a date 1880 +/- 150 BP, but this does not directly date the human remains.
Site of late Iron Age or early medieval promontory fort.
The full extent of the fort was recorded by the Ordnance Survey First Edition 1:2500 mapping of 1868. The promontory is naturally defensible, with rocky cliffs to the north-west and south-east. The approach from the landward direction is artificially defended by substantial earthwork defences consisting of an outer ditch 70m long. Additional earthwork banks and ditches within the defended area created a causeway leading to the most westerly tip of the headland. No corresponding causeway or entrance through the outer defences was recorded by the OS. Today a fragment of the outer ditch survives at its south-eastern end, and still measures 10m wide and 3m deep.
Around 1900, a house was been built in the centre of the fort and the outer ditch was largely filled in except for the remains described above. Faint traces of the inner earthworks are still apparent, again on the south-easterly side of the promontory, but otherwise other features have been obscured or destroyed, leaving few if any intelligible surface remains.
The findspot of a Mesolithic flint scatter from an area to north of the slipway sited 235 metres to north of the end of the road. The scatter included a round-ended scraper and microliths.
Sherds of Neolithic Ronaldsway type (PRN 1205.10) and Bronze Age pottery (PRN 1205.20) were also found, along with a hearth sample which included a micaceous sherd.
The findspot of Mesolithic Heavy-blade type flints, pottery sherds of Neolithic Ronaldsway and 'megalithic' type and a rubbing stone. These were collected from an area of eroding occupation levels sectioned by Roger Dackombe, 130-140 metres north of the end of the road.
The findspot of a number of Ronaldsway type flints, including 2 hump-backed scrapers, a Mesolithic Heavy-blade 'missile head' (PRN 1200.10) as well as 5 sherds of pottery, 2 of which were of Neolithic Ronaldsway type, and samples of charcoal and burnt clay. These were collected from the shoreline in an area of coastal erosion.
The conjectured site of a Bronze Age settlement based on pottery sherds found in 1977 and 1983, as well assorted flints collected along the shore on this eroding coastline. It is not certain that they were derived from the same site, which would now be destroyed by erosion.
The location of a post-medieval waste midden located on the coastline 25 metres north of Port Cranstal. Material sampled from the midden included the base of an 18th or 19th century wine bottle, limpets, dog whelks, edible winkles and peaty soil.
The conjectured site of a Neolithic or Bronze Age settlement based on discoveries of flints and decorated pottery sherds, a broken granite saddle quern and a utilised pebble here. The finds were collected from freshly eroding occupation debris extending 130 metres north from the end of the road.
The site of a conjectured early prehistoric settlement based on finds of an arrowhead and a chip, a granite grain rubber and flint waste, some of which was sea-rolled, all collected from the shore or eroding cliffs. The precise findspots are not known.
The conjectured site of a Bronze Age settlement based on a collection of pottery sherds, including a carinated bowl with everted rim and whipped cord decoration of Bronze Age appearance.
The findspot of an early prehistoric flint scraper. This large, much weathered piece was an isolated find collected on the shore. The precise findspot is unknown and the grid reference provided is for indicative purposes only.
A subsidary lighthouse to Robert Stevenson's Point of Ayre lighthouse (03892.00). This smaller lighthouse was added in 1899, 230 metres to the northeast of the original light, due to the accretion of shingle banks along the coastline.
The Old Lighthouse at the Point of Ayre was the work of Robert Stephenson and was built on the northern-most tip of the Isle of Man. It was first lit in 1818 and had Argand lamps with two foot reflectors. Its foghorn house and a subsidiary light, which was made necessary by the accretion of shingle banks, were built 230 metres to the northeast in 1899 and lie between the Old Lighthouse and the present tideline. The original lighthouse is shown on the 1870 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey map. It remains operational to the present day, though is now fully automated.
