Isle of Man

Isle of Man. The Isle of Man in the Irish Sea is 48 miles from Anglesey, 38 miles from the Irish coast, and only 20 miles from Scotland. It is some 30 miles from north to south and 10 east to west—i.e. rather smaller than Anglesey but larger than the Isle of Wight. The population in 1991 was 70,000, many of them retired people. There is no evidence of Roman settlement, though they must have known it since Ravenglass, an important Roman port, was less than 40 miles away. A handful of Roman coins, probably from traders, have been found. From ad 800 it formed part of the Norse empire, though the control of the king of Norway was fitful. The representative institutions reflect the Norse influence. In 1266 it was ceded to Scotland after the battle of Largs, but did not stay long in Scottish possession. The island was disputed between Scots and English until 1333, when Edward III annexed and retained it. The bishopric of Sodor and Man, founded in 1134, continued under the supervision of the archbishopric of Trondhjem but was placed in the archdiocese of York in the 15th cent. From 1406 the island belonged to the Stanleys, earls of Derby, who ruled it as lords of Man, and held it until 1736. It then passed to the dukes of Atholl, but in order to curtail smuggling the British government purchased it in 1765 and took full control in 1828.

The island is a crown possession with wide independent powers under a lieutenant governor. There is a two-chamber assembly, the Tynwald, the lower house of which is the House of Keys. The emblem of the island—the three legs of Man—is an ancient design, possibly going back to the Norse period. The Manx language, basically Celtic, was widely spoken until the 19th cent., but is now an acquired tongue. With the decline of fishing and mining, tourism provides the main income, with regular sailings in the season to Douglas from Heysham, Fleetwood, Liverpool, Stranraer, Belfast, and Dublin. The largest town and capital is Douglas (22,000), followed by Ramsey (6,500), Peel (3,800) and Castletown, the old capital (3,000).

J. A. Cannon