Castletown castle and Harbour

Today we wanted to combine some activities, so set out for Port Erin in the southern neck of the island. We planned to take the train to Castletown, visit the castle and come back.

The inlet from the upper promenade ... we would come back here after our train journeys.

Arriving at Castletown, our train stopped and waited for the one coming the other way, and the hand over of the "keys". Then we headed for the town .. out of the station and around the roads.

As the road comes back to the coast .. the castle stood out obviously in the middle of the town.
Next to the inner harbour

The castle was a mixture of medieval and later rooms and facilities, all had been messed up when it was converted to a jail for a while.

Some of the rooms were recreated as the lord’s presentation rooms. The hangings covered the walls.

From the top of the tower they looked over the whole landscape.

Looking over to the promontory - we would go there later in the trip. Also back across to Port Erin and the tower on the headland.
To the south we could see the end of the calf of man,

A walk around the castle .. the one hand clock and back up across the inner harbour ... before heading to the outer harbour for lunch - we had seen it from the tower.

The outer harbour was suitably empty, with a strong breeze off the sea ... we found a sheltered corner and had lunch.

looking east to the college and the promontory

looking west to the lime kilns and the headland ... again we would go visit later in the trip.

We had seen signs for a craft workshop and decided to see if we could find it on the way back to the station.
The workshop was a difficult place to find, and when we eventually got there it was closed .. only open at the weekend!
So we cut over the river at the weir (used to keep the sea water out of the freshwater).