The claim
A narrow three-storey house at the bottom of Queen Street, where Douglas's shopping streets meet the North Quay. Pigot's directory of 1837 lists a Saddle in Queen Street kept by Philip Cain, a livery stable keeper in the same street; Brown's of 1881 gives the address as 2 Queen Street, which is where it still is. A locals' pub with racing on the television and a Thursday karaoke.
What the records show
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 the same directory as a livery stable keeper in that street — which is the trade the sign is named for. Thwaites's directory of 1863 has the Saddle Commercial Inn under Thomas McCandlish on the North Quay, the street the bottom of Queen Street runs into. Brown's directory of 1881 settles the identification by giving the address in full: Saddle Inn, Mrs M. A. Cooper, proprietress, 2 Queen Street, which is where the house stands today. Porter's of 1889 has W. H. Dowson at the Saddle Inn on the North Quay and Brown's of 1894 John Crook, both of them the quay corner of the same building. No register entry has been traced: the Manx register of buildings, as transcribed in the English Wikipedia list, carries a Saddle Hotel on Parliament Street at Ramsey but no entry for this house, and gov.im answers 404 to every media link from this machine. Whether a drink is served without a meal is answered by the operator: Okell's publishes bar hours to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, CAMRA's October 2024 survey records cask ale removed but the house open, and OpenStreetMap tags it amenity=pub.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1837 | Claimed founding | No published claimant |
| 1837 | First record of a drinking house here | CAMRA |
What to look for inside
- In Pigot's directory of 1837 under Philip Cain, a livery stable keeper in the same street
- Brown's directory of 1881 puts it at 2 Queen Street, the address it has now
- Named for the saddlers and stables that filled the quay end of the street
Visiting
The Saddle Inn is in Douglas, Isle of Man, at 2 Queen Street, Douglas, Isle of Man IM1 1LQ. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/pg1837/do.htm
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/tg1863/doclass.htm
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/bd1881/do_chtl.htm
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/pd1889/do_cl.htm
- www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/bd1894/do_class.htm
- camra.org.uk/IOM/55
- okells.co.uk/venue/the-saddle/
- www.openstreetmap.org/way/79143098
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
Run this pub? There is a badge for it
Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.
How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.
