Explore The Island With The World’s Oldest Parliament

This Friday (July 5th), as the UK wakes up to a new government, a tiny British island in the middle of the Irish Sea will be celebrating Tynwald Day, dedicated to the oldest parliament in the world.

Just an hour’s flight from England’s largest cities, the Isle of Man is a 33-mile-long British Crown dependency boasting a rich 10,000-year-old history, from Celtic tribes to Norse Vikings, and its ruling under the Scandinavian Kings of Dublin.

Established by the Vikings over 1,000 years ago, Tynwald Day (coming from ‘Old Norse Thingvöllr’ meaning meeting place) is celebrated on July 5th each year with a mammoth of processions and a ceremony held at the historic four-tiered Tynwald Hill in St Johns — at 12 feet high, with ancient graves and a temple dedicated to the Norse god Thor, where members of the Manx parliament including the Lieutenant Governor, the President of Tynwald and Yn Lhaihder, gather to publicly proclaim laws in both English and Manx Gaelic.

Locals gather for Manx folk dancing, with a ‘Grand Manx Dance’ bringing together the Island’s dance groups, and give offerings of rushes to the shape-shifting sea God, Manannan, the legendary first ruler of the Isle of Man, wearing bollan bane pinned to their chests (a plant said to have the powers to ward off evil spirits).

Along with formal proceedings from fencing the court to reading laws, a church service, and receiving petitions, this year will also see the Isle of Man play host to the North American Manx Association Convention.

Tynwald itself is a tricameral parliament with three chambers – the House of Keys, the Legislative Council, and the Tynwald Court.

The High Court of Tynwald has 35 members, coming from the House of Keys and the Legislative Council, while the House of Keys has 24 members elected by the citizens of the Isle of Man every five years.

The President of Tynwald, elected from the Members of Tynwald, presides over Tynwald — which became the first national parliament to give women the right to vote in a general election in 1881.

Later, in 1919, with the introduction of universal adult suffrage based on residency, women were able to stand for election.

With ancient monuments from Manx stone crosses to Celtic-style tablets, burial chambers, and Neolithic tombs, the Isle of Man is the only nation to be entirely marked as a UNESCO Biosphere — boasting medieval castles, 100 miles of untouched coastline, 26 official sites for stargazing, rare wildlife from the Manx Loaghtan Sheep to wild wallabies, and the world’s oldest horse-drawn tramway, Douglas Bay Horse Tramway, dragging you along to the top of Snaefell Mountain.

For more information, head to Visit Isle of Man.