Athol House

Athol House is a bed and breakfast on Sherwood Terrace, one of the tall Victorian rows tucked back off the Douglas seafront. It is decorated with real enthusiasm: gilt frames, stone cladding, patterned paper and a hallway hung corner to corner with pictures.

You come up off the pavement between white pillars to a pair of black double doors, then through a glazed inner porch with a red mat underfoot, a mirror and a vase of blossom on the console table. Beyond it the hall runs under a plastered arch lit by hanging lanterns.

The breakfast room and the lounge

Breakfast is served at the front of the house in a room where one wall is faced in rough stone, the tables dressed with cloths and ringed by tub chairs, a bay window pulling light in off the street. Across the hall the guest lounge is the calmer half of the building: deep sofas, a fireplace with a white surround, a bookcase and a low table, with its own bay window looking out over the trees opposite.

Rooms in many colours

No two bedrooms are done the same. One has a green velvet cover and a buttoned ottoman at the foot of the bed. Another sets white bedding against purple patterned paper, and a third has palm-print wallpaper above a cushioned window seat. There are twins with a pair of singles, doubles, a room with a large double, and family rooms where a sofa bed stands beside the bed. Each has a private bathroom, most with a walk-in shower and a couple with a bath.

The green across the road

Several windows look over a railed garden and the wooded rise behind it, and the promenade and beach of Douglas are a short walk from the front step.

Who tends to stay

Couples and families who want breakfast cooked for them and a lounge to sit in, slightly back from the noise of the seafront.