Castle Rushen

The most complete Medieval castle in the British Isles, Castle Rushen dates around 1200 AD, when Castletown was the capital of the Isle of Man.

Home to the last Norse King of the Island, Magnus Olafsson who died at the Castle in 1265. It was  given away in the Treaty of Perth before being captured by Robert the Bruce in 1313. Edward I later claimed the Isle of Man and in 1405 Henry IV made the Stanley family Lords of Man who governed until 1738. Queen Elizabeth I gifted the one handed clock in 1597 which still works to this day. In 1651 Countess Charlotte Stanley surrendered the Castle to Illiam Dhone during the English Civil War and so it began to be used by members of the Manx Parliament. In the late 1700s it became a grim prison and insane asylum. The mentally ill were moved to Oatlands in 1863 before the Ballamona Hospital was completed in 1883 while the prisoners had to wait until the opening of the Victoria Road Prison to be transferred in 1891.

Architecturally Castle Rushen is a masterclass in Mediaeval defence with its curtain wall, glacis, moat, portcullises, murder holes and drawbridge. The outer walls are 25 feet high and 7 feet thick while the inner Keep and towers are 70/80 feet high with 12 feet thick walls.