Tynwald
The parliament and the ceremony. Tynwald claims to be the oldest continuous parliament in the world, and that claim survives only on the word continuous: Iceland's Althing is older, founded in 930, but was disbanded in 1800 and restored in 1845. The traditional date of 979 has no documentary support and appears to have been chosen so that a millennium could be celebrated in 1979; the earliest surviving House of Keys record is 1417. What is not in doubt is the practice: laws are still promulgated outdoors in Manx and English on Tynwald Hill at St John's every July. Also the Revestment of 1765, the Lord of Mann, the deemsters, and the 1881 Act that gave some women the vote, where the elected House of Keys wanted to go further than the appointed Legislative Council allowed.
Part of Isle of Man
86 moments in this segment.
- - Tynwald berthed at the Coffee Palace Berth, Douglas, Isle of Man.. The Steam Packet vessel Tynwald berthed at the Coffee Palace Berth, Douglas. The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company was founded in 1830 and describes itself as the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world.
- - Tynwald, Isle of Man. Tynwald Hill at St John's, photographed in December 1966. The mound is stepped in four tiers, and the ceremony held on it is the reason Tynwald describes itself as the oldest parliament in continuous existence; Iceland's Althing was founded earlier, in 930, but was suspended between 1800 and 1845.
- - TYN06 DW-1. Tynwald Hill at St John's, 2006. Laws promulgated here are read in both Manx and English, which makes Gaelg a working language of the constitution rather than only a heritage one.
- - TYN06 DW-4. Tynwald Hill and its processional way at St John's, 2006. Tynwald is Tinvaal in Manx, and the High Court of Tynwald is Ard-whaiyl Tinvaal.
- - Queen's Promenade, Douglas. (Doolish), looking north. Tynwald moved from Castletown to Douglas in 1874, following the population and the money to the resort capital.
- - View to Castletown seafront from Irish Quay. Castletown (Balley Chashtal) seafront from Irish Quay, with the tower of King William's College behind. Castletown was the island's capital and the seat of the House of Keys until 1874.
- - Old House Of Keys, Castletown, Isle Of Man.. The Old House of Keys at Castletown (Balley Chashtal), seat of the Manx parliament until it moved to Douglas in 1874. The House of Keys was self-electing until the House of Keys Election Act 1866, a closed body that filled its own vacancies; the first popular elections were held in April 1867.
- - St Johns Church at Night - panoramio. The Royal Chapel of St John the Baptist at St John's (Balley Keeill Eoin), at night. The chapel stands beside Tynwald Hill, and the ceremony on Tynwald Day moves between the two along a processional way.
- - Steam Heritage Trail on the Isle of Man (56). A pub at St John's on the island's Steam Heritage Trail. St John's sits at the crossing of the island's main west road and was served by the Manx Northern Railway.
- - The Royal Chapel of St John the Baptist. 's. Tynwald is bicameral with a joint sitting: the elected House of Keys, the indirectly elected Legislative Council of eleven, and Tynwald Court when the two sit together.
- - Manx National War Memorial. The Manx National War Memorial at Tynwald Hill, St John's. It stands on the Tynwald ceremonial ground, which puts the island's war dead at its constitutional centre.
- - Castle town, colonna in memoria del colonnello Cornelius Smelt. The memorial column in the square at Castletown to Colonel Cornelius Smelt, Lieutenant Governor of the island. The Lieutenant Governor represents the Crown on the island; the monarch's Manx title is Lord of Mann.
- - OCCITANIA 2-0 ST JOHNS 2nd Half - Tynwald Hill Tournament (FINAL). A football tournament final played at St John's. The village of St John's, Balley Keeill Eoin, is the site of Tynwald Hill and is a working village for the rest of the year.
- - TYNWALD DAY 2013 - Part I. Tynwald Day 2013, part one. The ceremonial way from the chapel to the hill is strewn with rushes, one of several elements of the day whose origins are traditional rather than documented.
- - Chapel of St John (Tynwald Church). Inside the Chapel of St John, the Tynwald church. The service in the chapel precedes the open-air sitting on Tynwald Hill, and laws are promulgated in both Manx and English.
- - Tynwald: Assembly, Royal Inauguration and Parliamentary Tradition on the Isle of Man. An archaeology lecture on Tynwald as assembly, royal inauguration and parliamentary tradition. Tynwald Hill at St John's is a Norse thing site, the name cognate with Icelandic Thingvellir and Norwegian Tingvoll.
- - Chamber in the old House of Keys. The chamber in the Old House of Keys at Castletown. The name Keys comes from the Manx Yn Kiare as Feed, the four and twenty, and the House still has 24 directly elected members.
- - Old Milepost by the A1, Main Street, St. John's, Isle of Man. An iron milepost on the A1 at Main Street, St John's, probably mid-19th century. The island's road furniture of this period survives unusually well because the network was never rebuilt at scale.
- - Cammag 2016b. The 2016 cammag match at St John's. Cammag is the Manx stick-and-ball game, ancestor of the same family as shinty and hurling, and it is played on St Stephen's Day beside the Tynwald ceremonial ground.
- - Parish church of St John the Baptist. The parish church of St John the Baptist beside Tynwald Hill. The earliest surviving record of the House of Keys dates from 1417, and the earliest recorded Manx law is of the same year, with the Statute Book proper beginning in 1422.
- - Cammag 2016. The St Stephen's Day cammag match at St John's, 2016. Cammag was the island's popular winter game before organised football displaced it, and the annual match is a deliberate revival.
- - Bollan Bane. 's national day.
- - The Tynwald Hill Inn. 2017, with safety fencing awaiting collection and food wagons still to be taken away. Tynwald Day is a working legal ceremony that also functions as the island's national fair.
- - Culture Vannin, December 2017. St John's in the snow, December 2017, photographed by Culture Vannin. Culture Vannin was established by the Isle of Man Government in 1982 to support Manx culture and language.
- - The Tynwald Ceremony - Exclusive Content. Manx Radio's coverage of the Tynwald ceremony. The Acts are read out in summary in both Manx and English from the hill, a requirement without which an Act passed more than eighteen months earlier ceases to have effect.
- - Tynwald Hill flagpole (the very top!). The top of the flagpole on Tynwald Hill, photographed from scaffolding erected before Tynwald Day. Tynwald Hill (Cronk y Keeillown) is itself a Norse thing site, the word cognate with Icelandic Thingvellir and Norwegian Tingvoll.
- - Tynwald Day walkway, with St. John's Chapel. The Tynwald Day walkway with St John's Chapel beyond, photographed from scaffolding on the hill. The procession runs along this way between chapel and mound, and the promulgation of Acts at the far end is what keeps them legally valid.
- - Tynwald Day 2019 - Live Broadcast. The full live broadcast of Tynwald Day 2019 from St John's. The site is Cronk y Keeillown, a stepped mound on which the branches of Tynwald sit in the open air.
- - Tynwald Hill Inn. The Tynwald Hill Inn at St John's with flags flying for Tynwald Day, normally held on 5 July. Tynwald's own record states there is no documentary evidence of a first sitting in 979; the millennium celebrated in 1979 rested on a date chosen by officials rather than found in any source.
- - Hunt the Wren around Tynwald Hill, 2020. Hunt the Wren around Tynwald Hill at St John's, 2020. The custom belongs to St Stephen's Day, 26 December, and takes place on the same mound where laws are promulgated each 5 July.
- - Tynwald Day 2021 - Live. Tynwald Day 2021, broadcast live. The ceremony was held in reduced form during the pandemic years, but promulgation continued because an unpromulgated Act lapses after eighteen months.
- - St. George - The White Boys, St. John's, 2021 - 52553076245. St George in The White Boys at St John's, 2021. St John's is Tynwald's ceremonial ground, and the same village hosts the mummers' play, Hunt the Wren and the cammag match on 26 December.
- - Little Devil Doubt - The White Boys, St. John's, 2021. Little Devil Doubt in The White Boys at St John's, 2021. The mummers' play is a folk custom, distinct from the constitutional business that gives St John's its name.
- - The White Boys, St. John's, 2021 - 52552607196. The White Boys at St John's, 2021. The village is small, and the same ground carries the mummers' play in winter and the open-air sitting of Tynwald in July.
- - The Doctor in The White Boys at St. John's, 2021 - 52553075305. The Doctor in The White Boys at St John's, 2021. The play is folklore, performed by volunteers, and is documented here as a living custom rather than as history.
- - The Doctor in The White Boys at St. John's, 2021. 's, Balley Keeill Eoin in Manx, is also home to the Bunscoill Ghaelgagh, which has taught all subjects through Manx since 2001.
- - St. Denis - The White Boys, St. John's, 2021 - 52553076205. St Denis in The White Boys at St John's, 2021. The play is one of several customs that cluster on the Tynwald ground in the days after Christmas.
- - House of Keys Question Time 8.3.2022. Question Time in the House of Keys. The Keys has 24 directly elected members, a number and name that go back to Yn Kiare as Feed, the four and twenty, from which the English word Keys derives.
- - Swearing in of Lt General Sir John Lorimer KCB DSO MBE as Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man. The swearing in of Lieutenant General Sir John Lorimer as Lieutenant Governor. The Lieutenant Governor is the Crown's representative on the island, an office whose nineteenth century holders, notably Loch, exercised real political power over the elected House of Keys.
- - Tynwald Day 2023 - Live Stream. A live stream of Tynwald Day 2023. The day combines a church service at St John's, a procession along the ceremonial way, the promulgation of Acts and the presentation of petitions.
- - Isle of Man: Tour of The Tynwald in Douglas. A tour of the Tynwald building in Douglas. The legislature's monthly sittings are held in Douglas; only the annual open-air sitting takes place at Tynwald Hill in St John's.
- - Tynwald Day 2023. Manx Radio's coverage of Tynwald Day 2023. The ceremony has been held at the same site at St John's for centuries, though the documentary record of the institution begins in the early fifteenth century rather than in 979.
- - Tynwald Church, The Royal Chapel of St John the Baptist at St John's. 's within eighteen months of passage becomes null and void, so the open-air ceremony is a condition of legal validity rather than pageantry.
- - Tynwald Field, The Royal Chapel of St John and the Manx National War Memorial. Tynwald Field with the Royal Chapel of St John and the Manx National War Memorial. The field is the processional ground between chapel and hill on 5 July, and it holds the island's principal war memorial.
- - 23 petitions at Tynwald Day, police pay latest, nursing union meets ministers, RAF medals come ho.... Twenty three petitions presented at Tynwald Day. The Petition for Redress of Grievance, presented on Tynwald Hill on the day, is a surviving direct route for any resident to put a matter before the legislature.
- - Agenda 1 July. Manx Radio's Agenda for the first of July. Tynwald Day falls on 5 July, when the branches meet in open air at St John's and newly passed Acts are promulgated in Manx and English.
- - Tynwald Day - Tings ain't what they used to be!. A Tynwald Day discussion of how the ceremony has changed. Although a millennium was celebrated in 1979, Tynwald's own record states there is no documentary evidence of a sitting in 979; the earliest surviving record of the House of Keys dates from 1417.
- - 10. Talking in the Dark with H.E. the Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man and Lady Lorimer. A conversation with the Lieutenant Governor and Lady Lorimer. The Lieutenant Governor represents the Crown on the island; the monarch's Manx title is Lord of Mann, and the office of Lord was bought out from the Duke of Atholl at Revestment in 1765.
- - Woman on Mann: Tynwald Day Live Special. A Tynwald Day special from Manx Radio's Woman on Mann. In 1881 the elected House of Keys voted to strike the word male from the franchise bill entirely and to let women stand for election; the Legislative Council and Lieutenant Governor Loch cut it back to propertied spinsters and widows over 21.
- - Tynwald Prefects Investiture 2024. A prefects investiture at Tynwald Primary School. The name Tynwald derives from Old Norse thingvollr, assembly field, and is attached across the island to the institution and the site at St John's.
- - IM1: A NEW HOPE TYNWALD DAY SPECIAL - BUT NOT THAT SPECIAL. A comic Tynwald Day special from Manx Radio. The day is the island's national day, combining a legislative sitting with a fair at St John's.
- - Tynwald Day 2024 LIVE. Tynwald Day 2024 broadcast live. Tynwald's own history concedes that no documentary evidence confirms a first sitting in 979; the year was adopted so that a millennium could be celebrated in 1979.
- - Isle of Man - St John's - Tynwald Hill 20240221 south entrance. The south entrance to Tynwald Hill at St John's (Balley Keeill Eoin). The place-name Tynwald appears in the Chronicles of Mann, a 13th to 14th century source, and the earliest detailed description of the assembly's role and composition is early 15th century.
- - Perspective 7.9.25 - Chief Minister Alf Cannan explains his plans for the final year of this curr.... Chief Minister Alf Cannan on the final year of the administration. Tynwald is bicameral: the directly elected House of Keys of 24 members, Yn Kiare as Feed, and the indirectly elected Legislative Council of 11, sitting together as Tynwald Court.
- - Perspective 5.1.25 - December Tynwald leftovers. Perspective on the December Tynwald sitting. The Legislative Council's eleven members are indirectly elected, a structure that in 1881 allowed the unelected chamber to cut back the Keys' vote for women's suffrage.
- - Agenda 24.11.25 - the Area Plan for the North and West defeated in an extraordinary Tynwald vote.. Tynwald defeats the Area Plan for the North and West. Planning policy is entirely a Manx matter; the island is not part of the United Kingdom and was never a member of the European Union.
- - Perspective 8.6.25 - Douglas North MHK John Wannenburgh talks about MUA infrastructure investment.... Douglas North MHK John Wannenburgh on infrastructure investment. Douglas (Doolish) is the island's capital and largest town, with 26,677 residents at the 2021 census out of an island population of 84,069.
- - Tynwald 18/03/2025 part 2. A recording of the Tynwald sitting of 18 March 2025. Tynwald Court is the joint sitting of the House of Keys and the Legislative Council, and is where the island's budget and most policy motions are decided.
- - Perspective 15.12.24 - December Tynwald highlights. Perspective on the December 2024 Tynwald highlights. Tynwald sits monthly through the year apart from the summer recess, with the open-air sitting at St John's on Tynwald Day.
- - THE ARCHIVE ROOM - 3 formidable former MHK's - and the first episode of our new serial!. Manx Radio's Archive Room featuring three former members of the House of Keys. Direct election to the Keys dates from the House of Keys Election Act 1866, which received Royal Assent in December 1866 with the first elections held in April 1867.
- - Perspective 26.10.25 - Some of the October Tynwald highlights. Perspective on the October 2025 Tynwald highlights. Tynwald describes itself as the oldest parliament in continuous existence, a claim that turns entirely on the word continuous.
- - Perspective 16.11.25 - is Tynwald trying to have its cake and eat it on its minimum wage decision?. Perspective on Tynwald's minimum wage decision. Employment law and wage regulation are entirely Manx matters; the island is not part of the United Kingdom and legislates for itself on domestic policy.
- - Perspective 22.6.25 - June Tynwald Highlights. Perspective on the June 2025 Tynwald highlights. The Legislative Council's eleven indirectly elected members can and do amend or block measures passed by the directly elected Keys.
- - Perspective 10.8.25 - Junior Tynwald sat in July and we hear part of the sitting’s question time.. Question time at Junior Tynwald, the schools sitting held in the Tynwald chamber. The institution's civic teaching role sits alongside its constitutional one.
- - The Ancient Tynwald Open Air Ceremony. An account of the open-air Tynwald ceremony. Tynwald Hill at St John's is a Norse assembly site, the name cognate with Iceland's Thingvellir; the modern Acts of Tynwald are still promulgated there in Manx and English.
- - Agenda 27.10.25 - Tynwald defeats the Area Plan for the North and West. Agenda on Tynwald's defeat of the Area Plan for the North and West. The island's six ancient sheadings, a Norse-derived administrative division, still underlie the constituency structure set out in 1866.
- - 2025 TYNWALD LIVE FEED (FULL). The full 2025 Tynwald Day live feed. Petitions for Redress of Grievance are presented on the hill, a route by which any resident can put a matter directly to the legislature.
- - Hunt the Wren - the conclusion of the dance in St John's, 2024. The conclusion of the Hunt the Wren dance at St John's, 2024. Hunt the Wren is performed on 26 December and is one of the customs that keeps St John's in use as a gathering place outside Tynwald Day.
- - Robert Edward Morrison (1851-1924) - Dalrymple Maitland (1848-1919), Speaker of the House of Keys (1909-191.... A portrait of Dalrymple Maitland (1848 to 1919), Speaker of the House of Keys, by Robert Edward Morrison. Maitland presided over the elected chamber in the decades after the 1866 Act made it a popularly elected body.
- - Hunt the Wren in the Arboretum car park, St John's, 2024. Hunt the Wren in the arboretum car park at St John's, 2024. The custom is documented in the modern Manx calendar by Culture Vannin, which photographs it year by year.
- - Franz Höpfner (1840-1893) - Landscape - PCF80 - Tynwald. A landscape by Franz Hoepfner (1840 to 1893) in the Tynwald collection. Tynwald holds a working art collection alongside its records.
- - The chicken isn't interested in Hunting the Wren. A chicken ignores Hunt the Wren at St John's, 2024. The custom is performed on 26 December at the Tynwald ground and photographed annually by Culture Vannin.
- - On the way up Tynwald Hill for Hunt the Wren, 2024. Making the way up Tynwald Hill for Hunt the Wren, 2024. The mound is the same one on which Acts of Tynwald are promulgated each July, and the community uses it the rest of the year too.
- - lIve Tynwald day 2026. Tynwald Day 2026 broadcast live from Tynwald Hill at St John's (Balley Keeill Eoin). Laws are promulgated in both Manx and English, and an Act of Tynwald not promulgated at St John's within eighteen months of passage becomes null and void, so the open-air ceremony is a condition of legal validity.
- - Agenda 23.6.26 - assisted dying legislation moved a step closer in June Tynwald … probably?. Manx Radio's Agenda on assisted dying legislation before Tynwald. The island legislates for itself on domestic matters as a Crown Dependency, and its assisted dying bill proceeded independently of Westminster.
- - Net-zero policy on the Tynwald agenda today with motion calling for a referendum. A Tynwald motion calling for a referendum on net zero policy. The island holds UNESCO Biosphere status covering all its land and territorial sea, awarded in 2016, which its environmental policy debates repeatedly return to.
- - Perspective 28.6.26 - another look at a very busy June Tynwald. Manx Radio's Perspective reviews the June 2026 Tynwald sitting. Tynwald Court sits monthly, with the annual open-air sitting at Tynwald Hill on Tynwald Day, normally 5 July.
- - Perspective 2.8.26 - the second of our Perspectives on July’s bumper Tynwald sitting. Perspective on the July 2026 Tynwald sitting. Tynwald's continuity claim rests on the word continuous: Iceland's Althing was founded earlier, in 930, but was disbanded in 1800 and restored in 1845.
- - Perspective 24.5.26 - Health, Brownfield Sites and Cannabis were just some of the May Tynwald hig.... Perspective on health, brownfield sites and cannabis at the May 2026 Tynwald. The island sets its own domestic law and taxation; the United Kingdom is responsible only for its defence and international representation.
- - Perspective 15.3.26 - highlights from March Tynwald. Perspective on the March 2026 Tynwald. The island's fiscal structure includes a zero standard rate of corporate income tax with higher rates for specified sectors, set by Tynwald rather than by Westminster.
- - Perspective 25.1.25 - January’s reshuffle Tynwald. Perspective on the January 2025 reshuffle Tynwald. The Chief Minister is elected by the members of Tynwald rather than appointed by the Crown, and appoints departmental ministers from among them.
- - Perspective 21.6.26 - from assisted dying to horse trams June Tynwald was quite busy. Perspective on a June 2026 Tynwald ranging from assisted dying to the horse trams. The Douglas Bay Horse Tramway, which the tourism body describes as the world's oldest horse-drawn tramway, is publicly owned and its future is a recurring Tynwald question.
- - Agenda 12.1.26 - elections in the Falklands and inappropriate references to Tynwald members. Agenda on elections in the Falkland Islands and references to Tynwald members. The Isle of Man is a Crown Dependency rather than an Overseas Territory, a different constitutional category with its own legislature and fiscal autonomy.
- - Agenda 27.4.26 - last week Tynwald debated the idea of a tourism levy and agreed to sell the old .... Tynwald debates a tourism levy and the sale of a government building. Tourism has been an object of Manx policy since the Victorian steamer trade, and the island's visitor economy is still shaped by legislation rather than left to itself.
- - Perspective 23.8.26 - departing Ramsey MHK Alex Allinson reflects on his ten years in Tynwald.. The departing Ramsey MHK Alex Allinson reflects on ten years in Tynwald. Members of the House of Keys have been directly elected since the House of Keys Election Act 1866; before that the Keys was self-electing, a closed body that filled its own vacancies.
- - 2026 TYNWALD DAY LIVE FEED. The full live feed of Tynwald Day 2026 from Tynwald Hill. The ceremony includes the promulgation of Acts in Manx and English, without which an Act passed more than eighteen months earlier becomes void.
