Rushen Abbey

The ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded in 1134 near Ballasalla, once the most important religious house on the island and, for a time, the burial place of Manx kings. Most of the abbey buildings were dismantled after the Reformation, but enough of the stonework survives — walls, a tower and undercrofts — to walk through the original layout, helped by a visitor centre and gardens that Manx National Heritage has developed on the site. It sits beside the Silverburn river on the edge of Ballasalla, a short walk from Castletown.