Rushen, formally Kirk Christ Rushen, is one of the seventeen historic parishes of the Isle of Man. It is located in the south of the island in the sheading of the same name. Administratively, part of the historic parish of Rushen, and the majority of the population, is now covered by the village districts of Port Erin and Port St Mary. As a result, there is an exclave of the parish district which includes the Calf of Man. Other settlements in the parish include Cregneash.
For the purposes of local government, the majority of the area of the historic parish forms a single parish district, with Commissioners. Since the 1880s, two areas of the historic parish of Rushen have been the two separate village districts of Port Erin and Port St Mary, each with its own village commissioners. The Captain of the Parish is Stanley Ditchfield Clucas.
Politics
Rushen parish is split between two House of Keys constituencies: Rushen, covering the majority of the parish including Port Erin and Port St Mary, and the Arbory, Castletown & Malew constituency, which covers the eastern part of the historic parish. Each constituency elects two Members to the House of Keys. Before 2016 the whole parish was in the Rushen constituency.
Geography
Rushen parish includes the south-western extremity of the island, together with the Calf of Man along with its rocky outcrops Kitterland and Chicken Rock, and contains an area of about. It stretches round the coast from Strandhall to the precipices west of Cronk ny Irrey Laa, known as the Stacks, or the Slogh, a distance of. The principal headlands are Kallow Point, Black Head, Spanish Head, and Bradda Head ; and the chief inlets are Port St Mary Bay, Perwick Bay, Bay Stacka, Port Erin Bay, and Fleshwick Bay. The west of the parish is hilly, stretching southwards from Cronk ny Irrey Laa along the western coast to Lhiattee ny Beinnee, Bradda Hill, Mull Hill, and the Sound, across which the ridge is continued on the Calf. Port St Mary and Port Erin are the only significant settlements in the area, although they have now expanded to form a single continuoussettlement. Cregneash is a small village and folk museum near Mull Hill.
Demographics
The Isle of Man census of 2016 returned a parish population of 1,537, a decrease of 6% from the figure of 1,629 in 2011. At the time of the 2011 census, 2.64% of the parish could speakManx Gaelic.
