Tucked away near to Castletown is this gem. By way of a welcome change from all the total restorations coming out of the back of vans everything here is exactly as it was when collected. The same is true of the eccentric blokes running this chaotic jumble of truly historic treasures. One of them lives in Kate's Cottage up on the Mountain Course and owns the well which runs downhill to supply the famous Creg Ny Baa pub. In heavy rain peat turns the water brown and the pub has to change filters in the big green tank in the car park. Meanwhile, back at the museum, you can go up to the loft area and make yourself a cup of tea from the kettle, help yourself to biscuits, sit around in the old sofas and listen to their stories. People bring their dogs along too. It's all done on trust in typical Manx style. No signs telling you how to behave and very few locked up items in cabinets. You wander round and it is left up to you to respect unique artefacts in machinery, clothing, magazines and sundry lumps of bike bits. The many race bikes are just as they finished their last race so you can feel what their era was like. A great story surrounds the Ray Knight Triumph triple racer on show in gloriously scuffed up condition. This was bought at auction as a random box of triple bits in 2010 for £2180. Neither the buyer nor the auctioneers realised what they had got. It turns out to be authenticated as number 4 of only 12 full works original Triumph Triple racers ever made. Real worth is whatever someone would be willing to pay for it.
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