Which is the oldest pub on the Isle of Man?

It depends on which question you are asking. The Castle Arms at Castletown carries the earliest claim, about 1750, which CAMRA reports and nothing supports. The George at Castletown carries the earliest record, an innkeeper named in Holden's directory of 1811. The Mitre at Kirk Michael beats both on paper but is shut.

What is a registered building on the Isle of Man?

The island keeps its own register rather than appearing on the English, Welsh or Scottish lists. Each entry has a number, a date of registration and a notice giving the reasons. The Castle Arms is number 25, registered in 1984, the George number 38, registered the same day, and the Queens number 201, registered in 2002.

Why is the Mitre at Kirk Michael not on this page?

Because this site lists houses you can drink in today. Isle of Man Today reports the Mitre on a map of 1785 and described in 1797 as a most respectable inn, which is the best-evidenced old pub on the island — but Okell's publishes "temporarily closed" on its page, so it waits here until the doors open again.

Where do the dates on this page come from?

Mostly from printed trade directories of 1811 to 1894, transcribed on the Manx Note Book and read for this page rather than repeated from a list. Each one names a house, a street and a keeper, which together are what ties an entry from the 1830s to a bar you can stand at now.

Who is Okell's, and why does the name keep appearing?

Okell's has brewed in Douglas since 1850 and runs a good share of the island's pubs, including three of the five here. Its venue pages publish opening hours, which is how we check that a house is still trading and that a drink is served at the bar rather than only with a meal.

5 pubs checked · updated 20 September 2026

The oldest pub in the Isle of Man

The short answer

Oldest claim

Castle Arms

Says 1750. The first record is 1881.

Grade C · Tradition

Oldest proof

The George

On record from 1811.

Grade A · Documented

By claim, the oldest pub on the Isle of Man is the Castle Arms on the quay at Castletown, known across the island as the Glue Pot, which CAMRA says is thought to date from about 1750 — a year nothing we have read supports. By record it is the George, three minutes' walk away on the Parade: James Downes kept the George Inn at Castletown in Holden's directory of 1811, and the house appears in every Manx directory after it. Older again is the Mitre at Kirk Michael, shown on a map of 1785, but its brewery publishes "temporarily closed" where its other houses publish hours, so it is out of this list until it pours again.

Manx pubs are dated by two things, and neither of them is the sign over the door. The first is the island's own register of buildings, which is not the English listing system and not run by Historic England: a Manx house is a Registered Building with a number and a date of registration, and the notice that explains why it was registered often describes what the building was used for. The Queens at Douglas is number 201, registered in 2002, and its notice says the house was there before 1826 and was called the Queen's Hotel by 1854. The trouble is that the notices themselves are hard to reach — every gov.im link to one has answered 404 on every attempt from here — so what we have is the register as other people have transcribed it. The second and more useful source is the run of printed directories that Frances Coakley has transcribed on the Manx Note Book: Holden's of 1811, Pigot's of 1823 and 1837, Thwaites's of 1863, Brown's of 1881 and 1894 and Porter's of 1889. They list the island's inns street by street with the name of whoever kept each one, and because Douglas, Castletown, Peel and Ramsey are small towns whose streets have not moved, a house can usually be followed from one directory to the next and then onto its present address. That is how the five houses below are dated, and it is why none of them claims a medieval year: the Manx record starts where the paper starts.

Two towns, five houses

Castletown was the island’s capital until 1869, and both of its entries stand within sight of Castle Rushen. The George is the grander of the two, an inn on the Parade that was letting carriages and saddle horses in 1823 and was one of the town’s two good hotels by 1881. The Castle Arms is the opposite: two small rooms on the quay, drawn on the Manx five-pound note, and known to everyone as the Glue Pot because of how hard it is to leave. Douglas has The Saddle Inn, at the foot of Queen Street where the shops meet the North Quay, named for the saddlers and livery stables that filled that end of town — Philip Cain kept both the inn and the stables in 1837 — and The Queens at the far north end of the bay, which began as cottages and stables for Castle Mona next door. Ramsey has The Central on Parliament Square, built about 1797 as a house for Thomas Mylrea and later home to the island’s longest-serving High Bailiff; it is on this page but out of the ranking, because that date belongs to a private house and its inn-keeping is recorded only from 1889.

What the island has instead of a medieval claim

Nothing here reaches back the way the houses in England or Ireland do, and that is a fact about the records rather than about the pubs. The Isle of Man has no equivalent of the English licensing sessions in print, no Historic England list entry running to several hundred words on a timber frame, and a register whose notices are difficult to read from off-island. What it does have is an unusually complete run of directories for a place its size, which means a Manx house can often be tracked by name and street across eighty years — better evidence than a date painted on a beam. How we weigh the two is set out on the methodology page, and the general problem of a building that is older than its licence is explained in how historians date an old pub.

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The contenders, oldest claim first

ClaimProof

Castle Arms
Grade C
Castletown, Isle of Man
The about 1750 is CAMRA's wording and CAMRA's alone — its entry says the house is thought to date from around 1750 and used by the garrison from Castle Rushen a few yards away, and cites nothing for it. Okell's, which runs the house, publishes hours and no history. Nothing read supports a house here in 1750, and the grade says so. What the printed directories do carry is later. Neither Pigot's of 1823 nor Thwaites's
Dated 1750 by CAMRA; first recorded 1881.
The Central
Grade B
Ramsey, Isle of Man
Registered Building No. 176 on the Isle of Man's register, registered on 30 September 1998, says the house was probably built as a residence for Thomas Mylrea about 1797, that it is also known as the Old High Bailiff's Residence, and that Frederick Tellet, the longest-serving High Bailiff, lived in it. That is a date for a building and not for a drinking house, which is why the row is out of the ranking. The
Dated 1797 by its listing; first recorded 1889.
The George
Grade A
Castletown, Isle of Man
The only year anybody publishes for this house is 1833, and it is not the pub's: Visit Isle of Man, the island government's tourism site, calls the George a registered historic building dating back to 1833. The house's own site gives no date at all. The printed directories put an inn of the name on the same square a generation earlier. Holden's directory, taken from a Manx Museum copy dated 1811, lists James Downes
Locally dated 1833; first recorded 1811.
The Saddle Inn
Grade A
Douglas, Isle of Man
Nothing published states a founding year for the Saddle. CAMRA's entry calls it one of the oldest pubs in Douglas and gives no date, the brewery's venue page gives none, and the year on this row is our own earliest reading rather than anybody's claim. Pigot's directory of 1837, transcribed on the Manx Note Book, lists a Saddle in Queen Street among the inns and hotels of Douglas, kept by Philip Cain, who appears in
1837 with no published claimant; first recorded 1837.
The Queens
Grade A
Douglas, Isle of Man
Registered Building No. 201 on the Isle of Man's register, registered on 20 September 2002, describes the house as a public house built before 1826, probably first as cottages and stables for Castle Mona, and called the Queen's Hotel by 1854. That 1854 is the earliest record of drink-led trade traced here and is what the row is graded on. The register's own notice could not be read: every gov.im media link tried
Dated 1854 by its listing; first recorded 1854.

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Common questions

Which is the oldest pub on the Isle of Man?: It depends on which question you are asking. The Castle Arms at Castletown carries the earliest claim, about 1750, which CAMRA reports and nothing supports. The George at Castletown carries the earliest record, an innkeeper named in Holden's directory of 1811. The Mitre at Kirk Michael beats both on paper but is shut.
What is a registered building on the Isle of Man?: The island keeps its own register rather than appearing on the English, Welsh or Scottish lists. Each entry has a number, a date of registration and a notice giving the reasons. The Castle Arms is number 25, registered in 1984, the George number 38, registered the same day, and the Queens number 201, registered in 2002.
Why is the Mitre at Kirk Michael not on this page?: Because this site lists houses you can drink in today. Isle of Man Today reports the Mitre on a map of 1785 and described in 1797 as a most respectable inn, which is the best-evidenced old pub on the island — but Okell's publishes "temporarily closed" on its page, so it waits here until the doors open again.
Where do the dates on this page come from?: Mostly from printed trade directories of 1811 to 1894, transcribed on the Manx Note Book and read for this page rather than repeated from a list. Each one names a house, a street and a keeper, which together are what ties an entry from the 1830s to a bar you can stand at now.
Who is Okell's, and why does the name keep appearing?: Okell's has brewed in Douglas since 1850 and runs a good share of the island's pubs, including three of the five here. Its venue pages publish opening hours, which is how we check that a house is still trading and that a drink is served at the bar rather than only with a meal.