The Groudle Glen Hotel was built by R.M. Broadbent, the farmer who owned Bibaloe Beg Farm and who saw an opportunity when an electric tramway was planned along Banks Howe to link Douglas with a proposed satellite town. Broadbent developed the wooded valley below his farm as the 'Fern Glen of the Isle of Man', planting the trees still seen today and creating a sea-lion pool at the cove, and the hotel opened for business in September 1893 to coincide with the new electric railway's arrival. Over the winter of 1895-96 he went on to lay the track for the narrow-gauge Groudle Glen Railway, which still runs past the hotel today. It is registered as a former public house.