The Isle of Man sits in the middle of the Irish Sea, roughly equidistant from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It is not part of the United Kingdom, and it never has been.
What it actually is
A Crown Dependency. The King is head of state, holding the title Lord of Mann, and the UK is responsible for its defence and international representation. In everything else — taxation, laws, health, immigration policy — the island governs itself, and Acts of the UK Parliament do not apply there unless specifically extended.
It was never in the European Union either, having a special limited relationship rather than membership.
The Channel Islands — Jersey and Guernsey — have a comparable status.
Tynwald
The island’s parliament, and its proudest possession. Tynwald traces continuous sitting back to around AD 979, which makes it the oldest continuous parliament in the world. The name is Norse — Thingvöllr, assembly field — and it is a direct inheritance from the island’s Viking rulers.
Every 5 July, Tynwald Day, the whole legislature processes to an open-air stepped mound at St John’s, where new laws passed in the preceding year are proclaimed aloud in both English and Manx. A law is not fully in force until this has been done. Anyone may also present a petition for redress directly to the assembly on the day, which people still do.
The TT
The Isle of Man TT — Tourist Trophy — has been run since 1907 on a 37.7-mile course of closed public roads, and it is the most dangerous regularly held motorsport event in the world.
Riders reach over 200mph on ordinary roads, between stone walls, houses, hedges and kerbs, on a course with around 200 corners that takes years to learn. More than 260 competitors have been killed since it began.
The island effectively shuts for a fortnight each May and June, tens of thousands of motorcyclists arrive by ferry, and there is a stretch of mountain road with no speed limit at all for the rest of the year.
The three legs
The island’s flag and emblem is the triskelion — three armoured legs joined at the hip, running clockwise. It has been in use since at least the thirteenth century and its origin is unknown. The motto attached to it is Quocunque Jeceris Stabit: “whichever way you throw it, it will stand”.
Manx
Manx Gaelic is a Celtic language closely related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic. Its last native speaker died in 1974, and UNESCO declared it extinct — a designation subsequently withdrawn after a determined revival. There is now a Manx-medium primary school, and several thousand people have some knowledge of it.
Manx cats and other things
The tailless Manx cat is a genuine island breed, the result of a natural genetic mutation. The island also has the Manx Loaghtan sheep, which frequently grows four horns, and one of the last surviving horse-drawn tram services in the world, running along Douglas promenade since 1876.
Financial services and e-gaming now dominate the economy, and the island’s low tax rates have made it both prosperous and periodically controversial.