Castletown could join Ancient Thebes, Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral, the Acropolis and Kathmandu valley and become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Commissioners’ chairman Colin Leather proposed the authority explore inclusion on the list of places of special cultural interest at a recent meeting.

He explained: ’I was watching a programme on world heritage sites and I thought: "Castletown is better than that." I thought we should be a site.’.

Cultural heritage

There are a total of 1,073 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites; 832 are cultural, 206 are natural and 35 are mixed properties.

Through listing the sites, UNESCO ’seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity’.

Mr Leather said the authority is exploring how the town can be considered for inclusion on the list.

He added: ’There’s quite a lot involved. We will investigate it.’

According to Manx National Heritage, Castle Rushen is one of the best preserved medieval castles in the world.

Other MNH sites in the town include the Nautical Museum, the Old Grammar School and the former home of the Manx parliament, the Old House of Keys.

Meanwhile just round the coast at Scarlett the limestone rocks are home to an abundance of wildlife and there is much evidence of its volcanic past.