Castle Rushen

PricingFree with English Heritage membershipEH memberFree entryNon-member£14

EH members go freeInfo

Free entry for English Heritage members

This place is cared for by Manx National Heritage, the Isle of Man's heritage charity. English Heritage members get free admission to all its heritage attractions from the first year of membership. Show your current membership card at admissions.

Free admission applies to the member only, plus children aged 4 and under; other adults and older children pay.
Admission charges may apply for some special events.
Several sites are seasonal, open from Easter to the end of October.

More information

Entry

Non-member prices

Adult£14.00

Student (over 18 with card)£7.00

Pricing details

Walk-up price without the optional 1.50 donation asked at the ticket desk. Children aged 16 and under are free and must be accompanied by an adult. Free for English Heritage members showing a valid card (the named member only, plus children aged 4 and under; accompanying adults pay). Multi-site saving: MNH's 7 day (35.00) and 14 day (40.00) adult Holiday Passes, the GO Explore Heritage pass (81.00, five days of transport and sites) and the Island residents' Annual Pass (45.00) cover every MNH site; special events may charge extra.

Over 18 with a valid student card; without the optional 1.50 donation. Free for English Heritage members showing a valid card (the named member only, plus children aged 4 and under; accompanying adults pay).

ParkingFree parkingFree for all visitors

No charge for anyone.

Parking details

Free parking. Castletown is a parking disc zone: on-street spaces and the town car parks are free for the time shown on the signs (2 hours in some areas, up to 24 hours in others) with a parking disc displayed; Blue Badge holders get double the allotted time but may not park on double yellow lines on the Isle of Man. Discs come from any Isle of Man Post Office (there is one in the town centre), the airport and the Welcome Centre at the Douglas Sea Terminal. Manx National Heritage's access guides (read 17 October 2026) describe two free-of-charge car parks near Castle Rushen and the Market Square and say the Old House of Keys and the Old Grammar School each sit next to a free-of-charge car park, between Parliament Square and the harbour; the guides do not name the car parks and none has dedicated disabled bays. Castletown Commissioners' 2019 off-street parking consultation lists the Chapel Lane (Grammar School), George Paddock and Malew Street car parks; no current tariff is published.

Driving pin: the MNH page pin (54.073775, -4.652935), which reverse-geocodes to Castle Rushen, Castle Street, IM9 1LD; the Google listing is 41 m away. There is a drop-off point and a dropped kerb at the main entrance on Castle Street; park in the disc zone or a town car park and walk.

Buses 1, 2, 2A, 8, 11 and 11A stop in the Market Square (about 25 minutes from Douglas); the Isle of Man Steam Railway has a Castletown stop. Coaches use the Farrant's Way coach park behind the Market Square, 5 to 10 minutes' walk from the sites.

About

Castle Rushen, Cashtal Rushen, is one of the best-preserved medieval castles in the British Isles, built 800 years ago for a Viking king and later a Civil War fortress and the Island's Victorian prison. It towers over the market square and harbours of Castletown, the ancient capital of the Isle of Man, and is cared for by Manx National Heritage. Cross the drawbridge into the keep, where walls three feet thick kept people out and in, feel the chill of a Victorian prison cell, enter the Treasury, once the most secure room in the Island, hear medieval music and spot mythical creatures on the wall hangings. Reviewers praise the informative staff, the dressed rooms and the view over the town and sea from the wall walk. Tips from visitors: the keep is a one-way route up narrow spiral stairs, three floors up and three down with no room to pass, and some find the steps steep; the ground floor is fully accessible, with parking and a cafe close by.

Check today’s timesSee all times

Castle Rushen09:30 – 16:30last entry 16:00

Opening times may change at short notice.

2026 season Friday 27 March to Sunday 1 November 2026, open daily 9.30am to 4.30pm, last entry 4pm. Closed over the winter until the 2027 season.

Tickets for every MNH site, and bus and heritage railway passes, are sold at the Castle Rushen shop and at 1 Market Square, MNH's visitor hub on the Market Square (open daily 9.30 to 4.30, admission free).

Access: the entrance barbican is a 40 m tarmac incline to touch-button glass doors; the ground floor of the keep, the exhibition and film rooms and the inner bailey have level or ramped access, but the upper floors are reached only by narrow spiral staircases (68 steps to the ramparts, 100 to the flag tower) with low lighting; staff can show a wider 'prison stairwell' route (39 steps) that avoids the spirals but misses the ramparts. Induction loop at reception, subtitled film, torches to borrow, mobility scooters allowed in the grounds. Accessible toilets with baby changing 100 m from the entrance down a steep incline; the Costa coffee shop outside the entrance has level access and an accessible toilet. Picnics welcome in the grounds (benches and picnic tables), no food inside the keep. Drones are not permitted.

Photo: Castle Rushen's keep and curtain wall seen from the paved square in front of the castle. Robsphotos, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Front_view,_Castle_Rushen,_Isle_of_Man,_March_2016.JPG. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.