About
Jurby Transport Museum occupies a former RAF Bellman aircraft hangar in the flat, open landscape of Jurby in the north of the Isle of Man, a site that itself once formed part of RAF Jurby, a major Second World War airbase. Opened at Easter 2010 by the Manx Transport Trust, the museum has grown into the largest transport museum on the island, housing a substantial collection focused on the buses that served Manx roads across seven decades, from 1927 through to 1997, alongside related exhibits on the island's historic horse tram and cable tram systems.
The collection's centrepiece is its span of Manx bus history, tracing the development of public road transport on the island from early single-deck vehicles of the interwar period through to the buses withdrawn from service as late as the 1990s, offering a comprehensive picture of how Manx residents and visitors actually got around the island across most of the 20th century. Alongside the buses, the museum holds material from Douglas's historic horse tram network, which has run along the town's seafront since 1876 and remains one of the last surviving horse tramways in the world, as well as the last surviving car from the Upper Douglas Cable Tramway, a steep cable-hauled system that once linked Douglas's promenade to the town's upper streets before closing in 1929.
Housed in the cavernous former aircraft hangar — itself a piece of wartime heritage worth seeing in its own right — the museum's scale allows vehicles to be displayed with a sense of space rare among smaller transport collections. As a volunteer-run trust with a genuinely limited opening season, a visit to Jurby rewards planning: the museum opens only on Sundays and Bank Holidays through the summer season, making it one of the island's more specialist attractions but also one of its most rewarding for transport enthusiasts willing to time their visit accordingly.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Check the opening days carefully before travelling — this museum is genuinely open Sundays and Bank Holidays only during its summer season, unlike most other Isle of Man heritage sites which open daily.
- The rural Jurby location means a car is the most practical way to reach the museum; plan your route as part of a wider tour of the island's north.
- Entry is free with donations welcome — bring some cash to support the volunteer-run Manx Transport Trust if you can.
- The hangar's scale means this is a good museum for visitors who enjoy seeing full-size vehicles up close in an uncrowded setting, rather than a compact, curated display.
- Combine a visit with a ride on the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway itself, still running along the Douglas seafront, to see one of the museum's featured transport systems in living operation.
- Volunteer guides are usually on hand during opening hours and often have detailed personal knowledge of the vehicles and their restoration — worth asking questions.
Highlights
Seventy Years of Manx Buses, 1927-1997
The museum's core collection spans buses that served the Isle of Man's roads from 1927 through to 1997, offering an unusually complete picture of seven decades of Manx public road transport.
Vehicles range from early interwar single-deckers, built when motor buses were still displacing horse-drawn and early motor charabanc services, through to the more familiar diesel buses withdrawn from active service in the 1990s. Displayed together in the hangar's open space, the collection allows visitors to trace the evolution of bus design, livery, and technology across nearly the whole of the 20th century in a single visit.
Douglas Horse Tramway Heritage
The museum holds material relating to the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway, which has run along Douglas's seafront promenade since 1876 and remains one of the last surviving horse-drawn tram systems anywhere in the world, still operating today.
Exhibits explore the history and operation of this remarkable survival, connecting the museum's motor bus collection to the earlier era of horse-powered public transport that preceded it on the island's roads and remains a living, working piece of Victorian transport heritage just a short distance away in Douglas.
The Last Upper Douglas Cable Tram
Among the museum's most significant single artefacts is the last surviving car from the Upper Douglas Cable Tramway, a steep cable-hauled tram system that connected Douglas's seafront to the town's upper residential streets from 1896 until its closure in 1929. Cable tramways of this kind were relatively rare even in their heyday, and the survival of a complete car from a system closed nearly a century ago makes this a genuinely important piece of British transport heritage, not just a Manx curiosity.
RAF Jurby and the Former Airfield Site
The museum's home, a former RAF Bellman hangar, is itself a significant piece of wartime heritage — RAF Jurby was a major Second World War training airfield, and the surviving hangar structures are a tangible reminder of the island's role in the war effort, a chapter of Manx history less widely known than its Viking or medieval past.
Interpretation on site touches on this wartime airfield history alongside the transport collection housed within it.
Collections
Jurby Transport Museum holds the Isle of Man's largest transport collection, centred on buses that served the island's roads between 1927 and 1997, spanning early interwar single-deckers through to late 20th-century diesel buses. The collection also includes significant tramway material, notably artefacts relating to the still-operating Douglas Bay Horse Tramway and the last surviving car from the closed Upper Douglas Cable Tramway.
Supporting material includes bus liveries, destination equipment, tickets, timetables, and photographs documenting operator history and the social role of public transport on the island across the 20th century, all displayed within a former RAF Bellman aircraft hangar that is itself a piece of wartime heritage.
Manx Buses, 1927-1997
The core collection of buses that served the Isle of Man's roads across seven decades, illustrating the development of public road transport technology and operators on the island.
Trams of Douglas
Displays covering the still-running Douglas Bay Horse Tramway and the last surviving car from the closed Upper Douglas Cable Tramway.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.