Castletown, the Isle of Man : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Castletown. You may be able to find further references to Castletown in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Castletown seaport town Bartholomew
CASTLETOWN a town Imperial

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Castletown within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
George Head South from Douglas 10
William Camden Smaller Islands in the British Ocean 3
John Wesley 1777-80: On the Isle of Man; City Road Chapel; Wesley Visits Lord George Gordon 3
George Head The Foxdale Mines and the Calf of Man 1
George Head Ramsey; a Manx Wedding 1
George Head Point of Ayre and back to Douglas 1
John Wesley 1781-4: An Ideal Circuit; Wesley in his Eighties; Wesley Visits Holland; Scotland 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Poyllvaish 5 2
Derbyhaven 2 2
Malew 0 2
Ballasalla 0 2
Arbory 0 2
Colby 0 2
Port St Mary 3 2
Rushen 3 2
Santon 0 4
Port Erin 6 3
Bradda Head 3 1
Spanish Head 5 2
Kitterland 2 1
Port Soderick 0 3
Foxdale 2 2
Calf of Man 4 3
Dalby 0 2
Glen Maye 0 3
Marown 0 2
Union Mills 0 2

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Castletown. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
CASTLETON George Head A Home Tour through various parts of the United Kingdom (London: John Murray, 1837).
John Wesley The Journal of John Wesley (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 2000).
CASTLETOWN John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
CASTLE TOWNE William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
RUSSIN William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.