Chime house

Chime House is a self-contained apartment inside a white rendered house on Glen Vine Road, trees on one side and open country behind. Tania is the host, and the flat has its own entrance rather than a shared hall.

You turn in past a brick pillar with a guest parking sign on it, then take a short flight of steps to a frontage of black-framed bay windows banked with yellow flowering shrubs. Behind the house the ground falls away to fields and hills.

The green kitchen and the long room

The living space is one bright room. A mint-green fitted kitchen runs along the far end above a herringbone wood floor, a round table and padded chairs set in the window beside it. The other end has a deep buttoned sofa, an armchair, a rug and a television, under a moulded ceiling rose. The kitchen has a hob, microwave, fridge, toaster and kitchenware, plus a washing machine and tumble dryer for longer stays. The bathroom is a long cream-tiled room with a bath, a shower and a brass heated rail.

The bay-window bedroom

The bedroom takes a large double under a mullioned bay window, with a wardrobe and room to unpack. Two sofa beds in the living area bring the total to six, so a family can spread out between the bedroom and the lounge.

The patio and the steps down

Stone steps with an iron handrail lead down the side of the house to a paved patio, where a sofa and chairs sit against a screen fence with pots of flowers around them. Past that the garden runs down to the trees.

Reaching the towns

Glen Vine is a village strung along the main road across the island. Douglas is the nearest town, and it holds what a capital holds: the promenade, the shops, the ferry terminal. All of it a drive from here, not a walk.

Best for

A family or two couples who want quiet and a garden to sit out in, rather than a room in the middle of town.