Audioguides Douglas

Douglas sits at the mouth of the River Douglas on a sweeping two-mile bay, and it has been running to a slightly different beat from the rest of the British Isles since it replaced Castletown as the Isle of Man's capital in 1869. In 1511, only thirteen households stood here. Smuggling, then cooperation with Liverpool merchants, then Victorian tourism, each took its turn building the town up into something it wasn't before.

The Loch Promenade, built in 1878, curves along the seafront past boarding houses that have barely changed their facades in a century, while horse trams still clatter along the same rails spring through early autumn.

The Gaiety Theatre, designed by Frank Matcham in 1900, is considered one of the finest surviving examples of his work anywhere. Out on Conister Rock in the bay sits the Tower of Refuge, a small castle-like shelter built in 1832 for shipwrecked sailors, and it still looks exactly as improbable as it sounds.