Kate's Cottage (formerly Keppel Gate, The Keppel or Tate's Cottage) is situated at the 34th Milestone road-side marker on the Snaefell Mountain Course on the primary A18 Mountain Road in the parish of Onchan in the Isle of Man.
As Keppel Gate, the section of A18 Mountain Road including Kate's Cottage and the accompanying Keppel sheep-gates was part of the Highland Course and Four Inch Course used for the Gordon Bennett Trial and Tourist Trophy automobile car races held in the Isle of Man between 1904 and 1922. The corner is part of the Snaefell Mountain Course used since 1911 for the Isle of Man TT and from 1923 for the Manx Grand Prix Races.
The A18 Mountain Road was developed in the mid-19th century from a number of pre-existing roads and bridle paths. This included the building of a number of sheep-gates including the East Mountain Gate, the Beinn-y-Phott sheep-gate at Brandywell and Keppel Gate. The section of road from Keppel Gate to Park Llewelyn is a product of the Disaforesting Commission of 1860.[1] Contemporary photographs of the Isle of Man TT races in the 1920s and 1930's show a sheep-gates at Kate's Cottage and also at Keppel Gate and the name Kepple Gate referred to both corners.[2] The typical nineteenth century Isle of Man stone-walled cottage was occupied by the Mountain Shepherd Cecil Rhodes Tate and Gladys Tate and a BBC commentator mistakenly referred to "Tate's Cottage" as Kate's Cottage. The property was formerly owned by the Isle of Man Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and was sold at public auction and is now in private ownership. In the recent building of a TT Marshals' shelter at Keppel Gate, the original stone gatepost from Keppel Gate was incorporated into its design