The Story of Castle Rushen: One of Europe's best-preserved Medieval Castles

We will never know whether there really was a Martin Bailey castle on the site of Castle Russian. What we can say though is that if ever you wanted to see the model castle, beautiful in its proportions and perfect in its masonry, then you can't do better anywhere in Europe than this masterpiece in limestone. This is generally regarded as being one of the best preserved medieval castles in the whole of Europe, and the secret of its success has been the fact that it's always being used, from its earliest days as a great stone fortress, to later centuries as a garrison, as a power base for the earls of Derby, as a residence, as a jail, as a place for the tin wheel court to sit, and more latterly of course, as a tourist attraction. It might well have been built by the last of the Viking kings of man, another Magnus, Magnus II. He's recorded as having died here in 1265, the first mention of this castle, and though it wouldn't have been quite as grand as it is today, its earliest form would have been very recognisable as the heart of the castle we now see. No town round about it, the sea providing the water for the moat, which is clearly visible. So why was it built? Good question. Let's just say that around the 13th century, it was almost impossible to decide who was actually running the island. They didn't have elections every five years in those days, and the balance of power around the Irish sea was constantly shifting, so that at any one time, it would have been almost impossible to say who was actually in charge. The situation really was terribly confusing and very difficult to keep up with. During Magnus's reign in the Isle of Man in the 13th century, the important person to know was King Harkon of Noy. Magnus teamed up with him and invaded Scotland, but when Harkon died, Alexander III of Scotland threatened the Isle of Man, and when Magnus died, Alexander took the Isle of Man for himself. The Manx rebelled and a fleet was sent to attack them at Ronaldsway, and 537 of us were killed. After Alexander died, Edward I of England took over the island, but Robert the Bruce mounted an invasion and took it back and installed the young Earl of Moray here. This was when the bagpipes were introduced. When Robert the Bruce died, Edward III sent ships to the island to finally claim it for the English crown. And what about the poor Manx peasant during all of this? History doesn't recall what they thought. One day they'd see the Scots arrive galloping past, next it would be the English in hot pursuit, then the Scots, then the English. Blimey! There'd be hardly time to get used to the new money. I doubt they cared who was in charge. During the next decades, various English earls and lords owned the island, which was in the gift of the English king. And it was during this time that there was one particularly nasty incident which saw the strength of the castle really tested. Now, you probably know that terribly unkind joke about the French which asks, what's the difference between a Frenchman and a piece of toast? Answer, you can make soldiers from toast. I know, terribly tasteless, but I reckon the Manx were laughing on the other side of their faces on that day in 1377 when the French actually invaded Castletown, and they weren't on holiday. It was during the time of the Hundred Years' War between France and England. You know, Crecy, Agincourt, Joan of Arc, all that sort of thing. The French had a nasty habit of indulging in hit-and-run attacks on the English coast. They pillaged the Isle of Wight, set fire to Portsmouth, and had a real go at Southampton. On one of these little trips, some of them must have decided to see what was further north, and for one reason or another, they ended up here in Castletown. Imagine the French marauders coming into the harbour and landing. They attacked the castle, but it held firm, so then our French friends started setting fire to the town. Mon Dieu! As you can imagine, the visit did nothing for Manx-French relations. All school trips were immediately cancelled, as were any orders for French cheese. It was only when the Manx offered them money that the French finally agreed to leave. Now, I'm not quite sure how that worked, because I find it difficult enough to buy a cup of tea at John Lennon Airport using Manx money, let alone buy off the French, but the point is, the castle proved its worth. The great building has been extended and altered since its beginnings in the 13th century. In the late 14th century, the central keep was raised and extended. In the next century, the curtain wall was strengthened and towers were added. And in the 16th century, an outer protective wall was built to deflect cannon fire. It was now the symbol of power and administration on the island. Just an interesting aside, look here, the remains of Renda. Now, there's every reason to believe, in keeping with medieval tradition, that at one time the castle was entirely rendered and whitewashed. After all, the Tower of London in the 14th century was known as the White Tower for that very reason. Imagine then, what the earliest parts of the castle would have looked like, clothed in white Renda. By this time, the island had new owners, who were to rule here for over three centuries. They were the Stanley family, Lancashire gentry, who were granted the Isle of Man in 1405 by Henry IV, and eventually they became the Earls of Derby. Here, in one of the rooms of the castle, tapestries show how this happened. The usual warring was going on in England, this time between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians, and at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, Thomas Stanley was fighting for King Richard III. But when he saw things were going against the King, Thomas changed sides and started to support Henry Tudor, who thereby won the battle and became King Henry VII. It's great having friends, isn't it? Tradition has it that the King's crown was found under a bush, and in this tapestry, Thomas Stanley is picking it up and placing it on the head of the future King. For this act, he was created an Earl. The Derbys were to rule here until the 18th century, and Castle Rushen was their most important statement of power. These remarkably lifelike figures depict the visit of the second Earl of Derby to the island. Here, he's seen dining with the Abbot of Rushen, the Comptroller of the castle, and the island's Governor. Apparently, the Earl dazzled the Manx with the number of his servants, the magnificence of his household, and the amount of gold that he wore around his person. We're so easily led, aren't we? Who was that awful man? I think he was local. Awful music. The castle, meanwhile, was fitted with all the latest technology to resist an attack. There was the Barbican, a twisting approach to the main entrance so that arrows could be showered down on any attacker. Then came the gatehouse, another point where you could be attacked and repulsed. Beyond here was the inner keep. The drawbridge to it was cantilevered and could be lifted up for protection. If you did get over the bridge, you would be trapped between two massive portcullises with murder holes above, through which could be dropped stones or boiling lead and oil. And of course, the spiral staircases made the access to the upper floors easier to defend. In the 16th century, with the increased danger of cannon damaging the base of walls, a protective earthen bank faced with stone was built around the outside of the castle. This is called a glassy, and it was once covered in slabs of stone along its top as well to deflect cannonballs. The nobility lived in the rooms in the main keep, with various chambers for entertaining and giving audiences. At times there were maybe 50 or 60 soldiers garrisoned in the castle who manned the day and night watches, but it's not likely they were all living in the castle. Only the senior officers would have had rooms here. Many of the ordinary soldiers were billeted with Manx families in the town, which was often a cause of great resentment. Of course, eventually the castle became a centre for administration. The governor lived here, courts were held here, and the keys and tin wool sat here long before they got their own buildings in the 19th century. Much earlier, at the end of the 16th century, the earls of Derby decided to build more comfortable apartments rather than living in the dank castle rooms. Derby House stands above the walls of the Barbican, and in the 1640s it became the permanent home for the Derby family. The warren of rooms inside are nowadays used for occasional sittings of the island's courts, but much of the layout of the original apartments is still visible, and some of these rooms have actually been built on the old wall walk, and their narrowness reflects the place where soldiers once patrolled. It was in these rooms that some of the greatest dramas the island has ever seen were played out. It was a time when the Manx were seriously threatened, and the whole future of the Isle of Man hung by a thread. They were at it again across the water, another civil war, but this time it would intimately involve the Isle of Man. King Charles I and the Parliament had seriously fallen out. In fact, they arrested him, put him on trial, and beheaded him. It was that serious. His supporters, the Royalists, were now at war with the Parliamentarians, who were attempting to rule the country under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell, warts and all. Now, you might ask, what's all this got to do with the Isle of Man? Why should we care about what was going on over there? After all, there's no reciprocal health agreement to worry about in those days, and nobody went to England for a holiday anyway. Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as that. The Isle of Man became intimately involved in the conflict, and at one point there was serious concern that the island might be attacked, and many of us slaughtered as a result. The whole situation revolved around the 7th Earl of Derby, the Great Stanley. As the latest holder of the title originally bestowed by the Crown of England, he was a staunch Royalist, and that meant that the Parliamentarians had their eye on the Isle of Man. The Earl started fortifying the island. Around the coast, work commenced on cannon batteries and the building of new forts, as well as the strengthening of existing ones. On Fort Island, the small stone fort, originally built 100 years earlier, was renovated and strengthened with cannon pointing across the bay to protect the entrance to Derby Haven. An earthen battery with two cannons was also built on the island, and it appears in this print of 1643. Its outline was recorded in the 1868 Ordnance Survey map, and its remains are still just visible today from the air, if you know where to look. All around the Isle of Man, cannon were ready to fire on any Parliamentary ships that dared show their sails. The Earl didn't normally spend a great deal of time on the island, but as the war in England intensified, he retreated here with his wife, the Countess Charlotte de la Trombewy, and they set up court. The Derby apartments were enlarged and made more comfortable, though at the same time, more guns were placed around the castle, just in case. The Earl and Countess lived in considerable style here during those years. Whilst England was torn apart by war and strife, the Derbys entertained lavishly. They were frequently visited by Royalist families from England, exiled aristocrats who came to this stronghold in the Irish Sea, this little kingdom holding out against the armies of Cromwell. Their guests were entertained royally, all paid for out of Manx revenues, of course, and on one occasion, the clergy, the quays and the coroners and their wives were invited to a great mask where the ladies in their costumes were gloriously decked with silver and gold and most costly ornaments, bracelets on their hands, chains on their necks and crowns on their heads. After the mask, a feast was most royal and plentiful. But the parliamentarians had their eye on all of this. The Commonwealth sent messages requiring the surrender of the island and Derby replied that if he got any more such requests, he would burn the letter and hang the bearer. It was time to fight. In August of 1651, at the height of the Civil War, the Earl of Derby came here to Derby Haven with his Manx army of nearly 300 men. They set sail in the seven ships in the bay for England to fight for the Royalist cause. Imagine the scene here, the confusion, the horses being loaded into small boats and ferried out into the bay and the Manxmen, boarding vessels to go and fight for a cause they barely understood. But within weeks the Earl had suffered a devastating defeat. He was captured, tried and executed for high treason. His Manx army were hunted to death in the English countryside and those who escaped had to make their own way back to the island, even though many of them couldn't speak English. Meanwhile, here on the island, the Earl had left his wife, the Countess Charlotte, in charge and it's now that someone else comes onto the stage of Manx history. A certain William Christian, or Ilium Doan, as the Manx called him. He was the receiver general, the Earl's right-hand man and when the Earl left for England, he appointed Ilium Doan as the Countess's commander and protector. But treachery was afoot because when Ilium Doan heard that the Earl had been defeated and captured, he decided that the inevitable invasion of parliamentary forces that would follow was something that the island couldn't withstand and so he decided to pre-empt the attack by offering to surrender. These barns are all that's left of Ronald's Way house and farm where Ilium Doan lived. The house was nearby and was only pulled down in the 1940s when Ronald's Way airport was expanded. In 1651, it was where Ilium Doan and his conspirators decided to prepare the island for surrender. Actually, there was an amazing scene here. Nearly 800 men, all the leading figures from the island's parishes, had gathered to be addressed by Ilium Doan. He revealed to them that he'd learnt that the Countess was secretly negotiating to surrender the island and sell the Manx for tuppence or threepence ahead. So great was the outrage that Ilium Doan was able to mobilise the Manx militia to take control of all of the island's forts. The only two strongholds that held out in loyalty to the Countess were Peel Castle and Castle Rushen, where she was living with some of her children. Most of the forts gave in without any problem because many of their non-Manx soldiers had left the island with the Earl. But there was one fort where it was touch and go for a while as to whether there would be a fight or not. This is Ballacurry Fort at Kerogarrow, way out in the middle of the Northern Plain. Actually, in the middle of nowhere. This is an extraordinary construction, one of the most amazing forts on the island. It's actually a massive earthwork built in the shape of a great rectangle with pointy bits at its corners. These corner bits actually provided greater protection because running around the top of the earthen bank would have been a wooden stockade, and if someone attacked the side of the fort down there, you could effectively fire on them from here, hitting them in the back. The sign here says that this fort was probably incomplete, and there is reason to suggest this because in the 19th century someone found a plan of this fort in the British Museum, and it showed it as being very much larger. The fully extended fort would have been like this, but what's actually here at Ballacurry is this. It seems that the extra ditches and bastions were never built, possibly because time ran out. Looking at it from the air, you can see how beautifully symmetrical it is. This is a common plan for forts of this period, and no doubt the Earl had his best military people come from England to design it and lay it out. It's a mystery to me why the Earl of Derby built this fort here in the first place. It's not on a river, it's not even on a road. The only way to get here in the 1650s was by marching across the fields, rather like today. It's not on the coast defending a port, and it's miles from the great powerhouses of Peel Castle and Castle Rushen. So why is it here? Well, some have suggested it was built to protect the northern plain, but that doesn't ring true. You can hardly find it, never mind attack it. I'm afraid the military strategy in this case eludes me. What we do know is that when Ilion Doan's men arrived here on the 21st of October 1651 to take this fort over, it was garrisoned, and there were some heated exchanges at the gates down there. The commander of the fort, Major Thomas Stanley, inside the gate refused to cooperate. Outside, William Tear and Ewan Christian started shouting at him about the iniquities of Lady Derby and her plan to sell off the Manx for Tuppence ahead. Ewan Kirgi, outraged that anyone should refuse to take part in this high patriotic endeavour, sent his men off to set fire to the nearby house of John McSale, one of the soldiers inside the fort. When the flames were seen rising from McSale's house, the men in the fort started deserting and very quickly Balacurry was taken, and so everything was now ready for the island to surrender. It hadn't taken Cromwell's forces long to get here. The earl had been beheaded on the 15th of October and ten days later the invasion force was in Ramsey Bay. On the morning of the 26th of October, an historic day for the Isle of Man, the action moved to here, Milntown House just outside Ramsey. Now I'm pretty sure that Ilium Doan was actually born here. In 1608, the date of his birth, his parents were living here and indeed his father, Ewan Christian, was the northern deemster and he held his courts here at Milntown, the ancestral home of the Christian family. Of course it didn't look anything like this in 1651. This gothic front was added by a later Christian in the 1830s, but the original core of the house is still here and the 17th century part is round the back. At about half past six on the morning of the 26th, four of Ilium Doan's team arrived here for breakfast with deemster Christian and to talk strategy. Ilium Doan himself wasn't with them. He was running operations from his house at Ronald's Way. There was Ilium Doan's brother, there was the attorney general who was his son-in-law, there was his brother-in-law and another. This was a family affair. They probably went through that door there and had breakfast in the old kitchen. This was a desperately serious affair. The fate of the whole island hung in the balance with the warships waiting in Ramsey Bay. Many knew of the ruthlessness of the parliamentary forces. Only two years earlier those who had resisted them in Drogheda were massacred. Over three and a half thousand people were killed. What these men were attempting to do was to save us islanders from a similar fate. After breakfast the delegation, which now included deemster Christian, walked up this drive and turned towards Ramsey to meet their fate. When they reached the beach here they were astonished by what they saw and so were the people of Ramsey. Out there in the bay was a fleet of 44 warships with three regiments of foot soldiers on board and two of horse. That was several thousand men. The Manx delegation were rowed out to meet the commander of the parliamentary forces, Colonel Robert Ducanfield. Fortunately he had already decided to treat the Manx fairly and not present a show of power. Upon receiving an assurance that he'd meet no resistance except at Peel and Castletown he accepted the surrender of the Isle of Man. He then started the tricky operation of unloading all his men and horses onto the beach here, helped by the Manx. When all were gathered one party of troops made for Peel where the castle surrendered with little resistance. The remaining troops went with Ducanfield to take Castle Rushen. The castle was preparing itself for a siege. Troops were on the ready expecting an imminent attack. As they marched into Castletown, Ducanfield's forces surrounded the castle and guns were placed. The parliamentarians had decided that Ilium Doan would be the best person to deal with Lady Derby and he duly arrived in the state chamber to hand her a letter from Ducanfield demanding the surrender of the castle. Lady Derby, sitting beneath her crimson canopy, received the letter from Ilium Doan and started to read. Very soon she came across the phrase your late husband. Now she knew the Earl had lost the battle of Wigan Lane but no one had told her that he had been executed. She went into a paroxysm of grief and anger and penned a reply to Ducanfield telling him precisely what he could do with his cannon. Ducanfield prepared to attack but before the first shot could be fired, down here inside the curtain wall, disaffected members of the garrison wrenched open the sally port and let the parliamentary soldiers in. Before long the whole castle was in the possession of Cromwell's army. The island had capitulated and was now part of the Commonwealth of Great Britain. The countess and her court were allowed safe passage out of the island to an uncertain future. The castle had narrowly escaped a damaging siege and the Manx had narrowly escaped a punishing conflict by deftly changing sides when the situation looked tricky. It's ironic that almost 200 years earlier the first Earl of Derby had also changed sides at the Battle of Bosworth purely for his own advantage. It's unlikely though had the seventh Earl lived to see the island surrender that he would have appreciated this historic resonance. When the monarchy was eventually restored and the eighth Earl succeeded to the Derby title he took revenge on Ilium Doan and had him executed but that, as they say, is another story. The castle continued to be the centre of administration on the island. Courts were held here, tinwood sat here and there was also a prison here and when the Derby ceased to be the Lords of Man and the title was inherited by the Dukes of Athol in 1736 the centre of power gradually started to move to Douglas. Eventually the Athols built themselves the magnificent Castle Mona and Castle Rushen was lived in by the island's governor. But for most of this period from as far back as the 1760s the castle served as the island's main prison. There was a prison at Peel Castle and various other forts had jails as well but the felons always ended up here and the conditions were appalling. Some of the prisoners became seriously ill as a result of being here and some of them even died. Bizarrely at the same time as being the island's main prison the castle was being developed as a tourist attraction. In 1874 for example when these rooms were full of prisoners 13,000 adults and nearly 800 children came to visit. An idea of the conditions in some of the cells can still be seen today and the various commissions looking into the state of the prison in the 19th century were less than impressed. The prisoners didn't even have separate beds never mind separate cells and by all accounts the bed clothing was filthy and for a period mentally ill patients were kept in amongst the ordinary prisoners. The cell windows had no glass in them so it was freezing in here. The rules were strict as you would expect and they really did have gruel for breakfast. The diet for the rest of the week seemed to be based on pea soup, broth or scouse made from potatoes and beef. There was no fresh fruit. They were up at 6am between March and September and 7am for the rest of the year. They had to wash and comb their hair, sweep out their cells and empty their night pails before they were allowed any breakfast. On one of the walls you can see the scratchings of some prisoners who have seen sailing ships in the harbour and drawn them. It was a miserable place to be and of course there was high drama here on the morning of the 1st of August 1872 when the last person to be executed on the island was hung out there in the castle grounds. John Couch from Solby was accused of murdering his father. He was imprisoned up there, he was tried in the court back there and he was executed here in the debtor's yard. The Manx press went to town on this one. An artist's impression was accompanied by a description which said that his was the face of a murderer, lustful, cruel, cunning. The receding forehead, the animal propensities being fully developed. A bad face and head which God forbid we should have many more in the Isle of Man. A perfectly fair piece of reporting then. When he was sentenced to hang the Home Office refused any pleas for clemency so the authorities set about the preparations. Problem was that the old gallows which hadn't been used for years was rotten and no carpenter could be found who would agree to rebuild it. The coroners and the captains of the parishes refused to attend and they had to be brought here by court order and finally no one could be found on the Isle of Man who could do the actual execution. In the end the government had to bring over the infamous William Calcraft, the 72 year old British hangman who was notorious. He famously used a short drop which often meant that the poor victims took several minutes to die of strangulation. When he arrived in Douglas he was spotted getting off the steamer and jeered and booed by a gathering crowd and when it came to Couch's moment on the gallows it was reported that the prisoner had to assist the infirm old hangman with getting the rope over his head. Couch was recorded as being the calmest person there. The bell tolled and a black flag flew at half-mast to indicate the deed was done. Straight after the execution Couch's body was put into a coffin into which was added quicklime and water to make it bubble and see. After that the coffin was brought round here to the stone yard and buried in a pit to which more lime was added to make sure that his remains would never be found. Since those dark days the castle has been thoroughly restored and is now as one of the best preserved medieval castles in Europe A major tourist attraction and a potent reminder of the earls and countesses, the kings and commoners, the murderers, the politicians, the soldiers and the ordinary people who have walked the stage of Manx history over the past 900 years.