From today (January 1) Manx school children can visit museums and heritage sites for free, thanks to the generosity of a local company.

To celebrate its 75th anniversary, Conister Bank has joined with Manx National Heritage to launch the ACE scheme.

ACE stands for Arts, Culture and Education, and under the intiative local residents under the age of 18 and in full-time education will be eligible to receive a card giving them access to all the MNH sites.

Managing director of Conister Simon Hull says the scheme is a great fit for the company's ideals (play audio file):

Entrance to the Manx Museum in Douglas is already free of charge for everybody.