Isle of Man pubs — the best ones by type, and what to drink in them

The Isle of Man does pubs well. They’re mostly proper locals serving beer brewed a few miles away, and several sit on a harbour or on the TT course. This page picks the best by type: historic, harbour and sea views, TT course, real ale and food. It also covers the two island breweries and the pubs you should stop looking for. Every pub named here was trading when we checked in September 2026, by its own site, Okell’s current pub list or local press.

For gin, taprooms and brewery tours, see our Manx beer and gin guide. For dinner, see restaurants.

The short version

If you want	Go to
Harbour pub with food	The Creek Inn, Peel
Real ale	The Woodbourne, Douglas, or the Trafalgar, Ramsey
History	The Castle Arms or The Garrison, Castletown
The TT	Creg-ny-Baa, or the Sulby Glen Hotel
A sea view with the trams	The Terminus Tavern, Douglas
A proper dinner	The Hawthorn, Greeba

What to drink: Okell’s and Bushy’s

Okell’s was founded in 1850 by Dr William Okell, who took over a Douglas brewery and built the Falcon Brewery near Derby Road in 1860. It has belonged to the island wine and spirits merchants Heron & Brearley since 1946, and it now brews at Kewaigue on the edge of Douglas (Okell’s (opens in a new tab)). Okell’s Inns runs 29 pubs on the island. The core beers are Bitter (3.7%), MPA (a 3.6% pale ale), 1907 (a 4.5% session IPA) and Smoked Porter (5%), plus seasonals (Okell’s (opens in a new tab)). If you see the red Okell’s sign, you’ll get a pint of Bitter.

Bushy’s started in October 1984, when Martin and Nicky Brunnschweiler took over a bar on Victoria Street in Douglas. They started brewing Old Bushy Tail in the basement in 1986, and in 1990 they opened a proper brewery at Mount Murray, opened by the beer writer Michael Jackson (Bushy’s (opens in a new tab)). Look for Old Bushy Tail (4.5%), Bushy’s Export Bitter (3.8%) and Ruby Mild (3.5%). It’s a free-house favourite, not a chain, so you find it in independents. During the TT, Bushy’s runs its own TT Village in Douglas, which reached its 29th edition in 2026.

The Pure Beer Act dates from 1874. Okell’s credits its founder with championing it, and it originally limited brewers to malt, hops, sugar and water (Bushy’s adds brewer’s yeast to the list). Bushy’s points out that it was amended in 1999, partly to allow additives such as fruit (Bushy’s (opens in a new tab)). It’s a good story and a good beer mat. It doesn’t mean every pint on the bar is Manx: most pubs also sell the usual lagers.

Historic pubs

• Castle Arms, Castletown. Everyone calls it the Glue Pot. A small Okell’s pub on the harbour in the shadow of Castle Rushen, serving Okell’s beers in a traditional bar (Okell’s (opens in a new tab)). It’s the pint to have after a Castle Rushen visit.
• The Garrison, Castletown. Round the corner on Castle Street, in a building said to date back to 1640. It’s more of a pub-restaurant than a drinking den. Isle of Man Today’s reviewer rated its burger in December 2025.
• The Woodbourne, Douglas. A red-brick Victorian local on Alexander Drive, up the hill from the promenade. It has been a pub since 1895 and was CAMRA’s Isle of Man Pub of the Year for 2025 (Isle of Man Today (opens in a new tab)). It’s a residential-area pub you only find if you know about it, which is why it’s good.

Harbour and sea views

• The Creek Inn, Peel. The island’s best-known harbourside pub, on the quay facing the fishing boats. It’s a free house, with Okell’s alongside up to ten guest beers, and it serves food all day and has benches outside. It gets packed on summer evenings and during the TT, and that’s half the appeal. It’s also a good place to try queenies.
• The Terminus Tavern, Douglas. At the northern end of the promenade, where the Manx Electric Railway starts. It has sea views and outdoor tables for watching the trams and horse trams come and go (Okell’s (opens in a new tab)).
• The British, Douglas. An Okell’s pub on the quayside. It serves a Sunday lunch of Manx meat and island produce, and it was a Manx Menu entrant in 2026.
• The Falcon’s Nest, Port Erin. A Victorian hotel whose refurbished top bar reopened in December 2025, with a view over the whole of Port Erin Bay.
• The Trafalgar, Ramsey. On West Quay, looking over the harbour, and listed below for its beer.

On the TT course

These are the pubs race fans plan their trips around. Outside race weeks, they’re country pubs with good views.

• Creg-ny-Baa. A pub on the corner of the same name on the Mountain Road, which is one of the classic places to watch. It sells tickets for its balconies and viewing platforms during the TT and the Manx Grand Prix, and serves home-cooked food all year (cregnybaa.com (opens in a new tab)). On race days, bring cash.
• Sulby Glen Hotel. On the Sulby Straight. Rosie Christian has run it since 1987, having started behind the bar in 1976. She calls it “a museum of TT memorabilia… open all year with real ales”. It’s for sale, so its future under new owners is an open question (Isle of Man Today (opens in a new tab), February 2026).
• Ginger Hall, Sulby. A few minutes up the road, and a dependable food stop on the way north. Isle of Man Today rated it in May 2026.
• The Crosby. An Okell’s pub in Crosby village on the Douglas–Peel stretch of the course, popular with walkers.

See where to watch the TT before planning a race day round a pub. The roads close, and you can’t always cross the course.

Real ale

• The Trafalgar, Ramsey. Multiple winner of CAMRA’s Isle of Man Pub of the Year. In November 2025 it replaced all its beer lines and added more cask and keg lines (Isle of Man Today (opens in a new tab)). It’s the beer pick in the north.
• The Woodbourne, Douglas. CAMRA’s Isle of Man Pub of the Year for 2025, with a well-kept range of Okell’s.
• The Albert, Port St Mary. The harbourside local that won the same award for 2024 (Isle of Man Today (opens in a new tab)). A proper drinking pub by the harbour: toasties, not dinners.
• The Mines Tavern, Laxey. An Okell’s local near the tram station, with a bar built in the shape of a tram (Okell’s (opens in a new tab)). It’s the right pint after the Laxey Wheel. In August 2026 the brewery was advertising for a new operator (opens in a new tab), so check it’s open before you go.

CAMRA’s Isle of Man branch also runs a beer and cider festival at the Villa Marina every spring. The 13th was in April 2026, with more than 150 real ales and ciders.

Food pubs

• The Hawthorn, Greeba. A family-run bar and bistro since 2000, and the best pub dinner on the Douglas–Peel road. It’s closed on Mondays (thehawthorn.im (opens in a new tab)).
• The Whitestone, Ballasalla. An Okell’s pub that reopened in March 2026 after a refurbishment. It’s near the steam railway and five minutes from the airport.
• The Colby Glen, Colby. A country pub in the south known for its Sunday carvery. It closed in January 2026 during an immigration investigation into its previous tenants, and reopened on 21 August 2026 under a new partnership with Okell’s Inns (3FM (opens in a new tab)).
• The Grosvenor, Andreas. The most northerly pub on the island, with walls covered in signs and memorabilia and big plates of food.

Gone: don’t go looking

• The Quarterbridge, at the famous TT junction in Douglas. It has been closed since the Covid lockdowns and is owned by the government. It was still boarded up and overgrown in September 2026.
• The Liverpool Arms, on the coast road near Baldrine. It closed in 2017. After a refurbishment the building was renamed the Lonan Arms, and it’s now a brunch café, the L.A. Brunch Club, which opened in June 2026.