Falcon's Nest Hotel

The Falcon’s Nest sits on Station Road in Port Erin, high enough to look over the bay, and it has kept what a Victorian hotel ought to keep. The bar is carved wood end to end, with coloured glass in the window heads and a painted ceiling above the snug.

Past the front door the corridors are panelled deep green, floored in tartan and hung with old island photographs. Upper floors are reached by stairs, worth knowing if you travel with a heavy case.

The carved bar and the dining rooms

The main bar runs long and dark, backed by lit shelves and hung with pendant lamps, and the snug beside it has buttoned banquettes, cast-iron tables and stained glass at the top of every window. A second bar with a wooden counter and high stools opens into a room set with tables. The restaurant is different again: white linen, gilt mirrors down one wall, a moulded ceiling.

Rooms in the roof, rooms over the bay

The bedrooms have been redone, and redone properly. Under the eaves the ceilings follow the slope and the windows sit deep in navy frames, so the bay arrives like a picture at the end of the bed. Expect tall padded headboards, cream and white bedding, wall lights and a kettle. Some rooms face the sea, some are twins, one is a family room holding a double and a single. Bathrooms are ensuite and tiled in warm stone, a bath with the shower over it in some, a walk-in shower in others.

Down to Port Erin bay

Port Erin Beach is a short walk from the door, and the sweep of the bay and its breakwater is what the front rooms look at. Port Erin holds the steam railway terminus and the shops; Fleshwick and Chapel Bay are a drive along the coast.

Who checks in here

Walkers working the south coast, families who want a bath and dinner downstairs, and anybody who would rather have that bar under them than a kitchen to clean.