A planning application has been submitted (21/00792/C) for a farm shop and tearooms at Knockaloe Farm in Patrick.

James Middleton, a tenant at the 200-acre government-owned farm, is seeking permission to convert existing offices into the cafe, and a former dairy storage building into the shop.

Mr Middleton said he is ’keen to utilise the existing buildings to diversify our business and encourage some controlled public access’.

He noted that the footpath which runs through the farm leading to the coastal Raad-ny-Foillan pathway brings a number of walkers through who may have interest in the farm’s history (as a former wartime internment camp), and that the tearoom, planned to be open two to three days per week, would benefit them as well as tourists.

A former vice chair of the Isle of Man Farmers’ Market Association, Mr Middleton said he was ’keenly aware of the need to encourage more production of locally grown and produced products’, and that the shop could serve as an outlet for local producers, where visitors and locals could easily source local produce.

The tearoom, which would not need any structural changes to be converted from offices, would employ two staff members, and one at the farm shop.