Castletown Nautical Museum

Captain George Quayle is probably best described as "somewhat eccentric".

An inventor and financier* he built strongrooms with labyrinthine entry mechanisms into his house and hid a boat in a cellar underneath a room designed to look like the inside of a different boat. It's a fair bet he didn't get the fittings from B&Q.

Unfortunately, his bank collapsed, he died, and the boat in the cellar became lost and forgotten. Which was a shame, because she's pretty historically significant. Rediscovered a century after Captain Quayle's death, "The Peggy", as she's called, was an exemplar of the most cutting-edge maritime technology in her day and is the earliest surviving craft of her type. She was donated - along with the house and boathouse - to the nation, and Castletown Nautical Museum opened in 1951.

It's a lovely little place, full of interesting quirks although unfortunately, at the time of writing, The Peggy has had to be removed for renovation work, so the boat cellar is somewhat less impressive than it's previously been. The museum is still worth a visit, though, as part of the excellent attractions Castletown has to offer.

*and probably a smuggler, but we didn't say that. Shhh.

Photograph of the Peggy by By Rowangus - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16370872

Access

The museum is housed in an old building and, as such, offers limited access to the less able. There is wheelchair access to the ground floor, but the only access to the first floor and basement is via steps. Parking nearby is limited, but plentiful nearer the town centre. There are no public toilets onsite.

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Admission