Nautical Museum

PricingFree with English Heritage membershipEH memberFree entryNon-member£11

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£11.00

Student (over 18 with card)£5.50

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 (54.073963, -4.650629), which reverse-geocodes to 10 Bridge Street, IM9 1AX; the Google listing is 16 m away. There is a drop-off point and dropped kerb outside the museum; on foot from the Market Square cross the harbour by the Cain Bridge.

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

The Nautical Museum, Yn Thie Tashtee Lhuingey, occupies Captain George Quayle's 18th-century private dock and boathouse beside Castletown harbour and is cared for by Manx National Heritage. For more than 200 years it housed the Peggy, the earliest surviving schooner and the only surviving shallop, now away at a conservation unit where behind-the-scenes tours run on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Quayle (1757 to 1835) was a politician, banker, soldier and inventor, and the Quayle Gallery tells his family's story with objects from the dock excavations: a leather pistol holster, a flintlock pistol mechanism, coconut shell drinking cups and what may be an 18th-century microscope. Sit in the cabin room fitted out like a naval warship's and find its secret doors and panels, then climb to the sailmaker's loft. Reviewers call it a small museum full of maritime tales and quirky secrets and single out the enthusiastic guides. Tips from visitors: book a guided tour, check the limited opening days, and expect the Peggy herself to be absent.

Check today’s timesSee all times

Nautical Museum12:00 – 16:00last entry 15:30
Nautical Museum Tour11:00booking essential

Opening times may change at short notice.

2026 season Friday 27 March to Sunday 1 November 2026, open Saturday to Wednesday 12pm to 4pm, last entry 3.30pm (closed Thursdays and Fridays). Closed over the winter until the 2027 season.

Guided Nautical Museum Tour on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 11am, 45 minutes, booking essential online; same prices as general admission. Behind-the-scenes tours of the Peggy herself run on Tuesdays and Saturdays at MNH's conservation unit at Cooil Smithy, Isle of Man Business Park, booked separately.

Castletown Heritage Tour: a guided tour of the Old Grammar School, Old House of Keys and Nautical Museum on Wednesdays and Saturdays through the season, meeting at the Old Grammar School at 12pm or 2pm (the Nautical Museum and Old House of Keys pages also say 'from 10am'); the page's online ticket link returned 'Page not found' on 17 October 2026, so book at the Castle Rushen shop or 1 Market Square. No joint Castletown ticket is published.

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: level entrance with a slight ramp; only the ground floor is accessible to wheelchair users (moderate ramps with handrails, a narrow corridor to the cabin room); the sail loft and ship model galleries upstairs are reached by 15 steep open-riser steps, the boat cellar and dock viewing platform by 7 steps. Induction loop, subtitled film, torches to borrow, dressing-up area for children, free wifi, small gift shop. No public toilets or baby changing on site: the nearest are at the harbour, the Civic Centre (radar key) and Castle Rushen. Drones are not permitted.

Photo: the whitewashed Nautical Museum on Bridge Street, Castletown, with its sign beside the door. Richard Hoare, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Nautical_Museum_at_Castletown_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1700641.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.