Isle of Man

The Isle of Man, in the Irish Sea, is a self-governing Crown Dependency: not part of the United Kingdom, which handles its defence and foreign affairs, but ruled at home by its own parliament, Tynwald. From the top of Snaefell, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland can all be seen on a clear day. Glens such as Sulby cut down to the sea, and off the southern tip lies the Calf of Man. Manx cats are often born without tails.

Norse settlers came in the ninth century, leaving crosses carved with runes, and from 1079 Godred Crovan ruled a Kingdom of Mann and the Isles reaching to the Hebrides. Scotland took the island in 1266; from 1405 the Stanley family held it as Lords of Mann, and in 1765 the British Crown bought the lordship to stamp out smuggling. Each July, on Tynwald Hill, new laws are proclaimed in the open air, as Norse assemblies once did.

The Tourist Trophy, first run in 1907, sends motorcycles racing round a mountain circuit of closed public roads each late spring. Hop-tu-Naa, at the end of October, is the old Celtic new year, when children carry turnip lanterns from door to door. Peel smokes herring into kippers, and queen scallops, queenies, are landed around the coast. The Bee Gees were born on the island. Insurance, banking, online gaming firms and a ship registry carry the economy, with farming and tourism behind them.