Downshire House

Downshire House is one of the tall Victorian houses on Loch Promenade, the run of seafront terraces that follows the curve of Douglas Bay. The water is directly across the road.

You arrive from the promenade pavement itself, and the building says what it is before you are through the door: a bay-windowed frontage turned to face the sea, with the beach and the sweep of the front filling the glass on the upper floors.

The bay-window lounge

The guest lounge looks straight out over the bay through a deep bay window hung with plum curtains, period armchairs drawn up around a small round table so you can sit and watch the tide. Rooms come with a kettle and a desk, a flat-screen TV and an ensuite with towels, toiletries and a hairdryer.

Rooms facing the water

The house is arranged as singles, twins and doubles with a handful of suites among them. Some rooms look out over the bay, others across the rooftops behind. The bedding tells you the place has been furnished over years rather than bought in one order, bright patchwork quilts in some rooms and plain greys and whites in others. The suites can interconnect, which is what makes them work for families.

Out along the seafront

Douglas Beach starts on the far side of the promenade railings, so the first thing you can do in the morning is walk on it. The front runs the length of the bay, and the rest of Douglas, the harbour and the shops and the horse tram line along the seafront, is on foot from the door.

Who stays here

People who want to be on the seafront rather than near it: walkers into town, arrivals off the boat, families needing two rooms that join. Ask for a bay-facing room if the view is the point.