Douglas Promenade & Horse Trams

The Douglas promenade runs for nearly two kilometres along the arc of Douglas Bay, lined with Victorian guesthouses and hotels that hint at the town's heyday as a mass-market seaside resort. At the height of its popularity in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, up to 600,000 visitors per year came to Douglas — a staggering number for an island of modest size.

The horse-drawn trams that trundle along the promenade from May to September are entirely authentic — a genuine Victorian survival rather than a tourist reconstruction. Ride them from the Sea Terminal end to the Villa Marina, then walk back along the front. The view of the bay from the northern end, with the Tower of Refuge sitting on its rock offshore, is one of the defining images of the island.

things to do sight
A story
The Douglas horse trams first ran in 1876, making them among the oldest surviving street tramways in the world still using horses. They run for just over two kilometres along the promenade in summer, pulled by the same type of Clydesdale horses that have been doing the job since Victorian times. At the height of the Victorian holiday trade, Douglas was the Blackpool of the Irish Sea.