Bardsey Island
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox UK place Bardsey Island (Template:Langx), known as the legendary "Island of 20,000 Saints", is located Template:Convert off the Llŷn Peninsula in the Welsh county of Gwynedd.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica : Bardsey Island Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref> The Welsh name means "The Island in the Currents", while its English name refers to the "Island of the Bards",<ref>Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, 1849, S Lewis and Co, London, 474 pages</ref> or possibly the Viking chieftain, "Barda". At Template:Convert in area it is the fourth largest offshore island in Wales. Template:Asof it had a year-round population of three.
The north east rises steeply from the sea to a height of Template:Convert at Mynydd Enlli,<ref>Template:Cite map</ref> which is a Marilyn, while the western plain is low and relatively flat cultivated farmland. To the south the island narrows to an isthmus, connecting a peninsula on which the lighthouse stands.<ref name="bardsey">Gwynedd Archaeological Trust : Bardsey Template:Webarchive Retrieved 16 August 2009 to 2010</ref> Since 1974 it has been included in the community of Aberdaron.<ref>Ordnance Survey : Election Maps : Gwynedd Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref>
The island has been an important religious site since the 6th century, when it is said that the Welsh king Einion Frenin and Saint Cadfan founded a monastery there.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In medieval times it was a major centre of pilgrimage and, by 1212, belonged to the Augustinian Canons Regular.<ref name="archaeology"/> The monastery was dissolved and its buildings demolished by Henry VIII in 1537,<ref name="history"/> but the island remains an attraction for pilgrims, marking the end point of the North Wales Pilgrims Way.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="history"/>
Bardsey Island is famous for its wildlife and rugged scenery. A bird observatory was established in 1953.<ref name="haven"/> It is a nesting place for Manx shearwaters and choughs, with rare plants, and habitats undisturbed by modern farming practices.<ref name="core"/> The waters around the island attract dolphins and porpoises and grey seals.<ref name="haven"/>
In 2023, the island became the first site in Europe to be awarded International Dark Sky Sanctuary certification.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Geology
Like the western and northern parts of nearby Llŷn, the island is formed from rocks of the late Precambrian Gwna Group, itself a part of the Monian Supergroup. The rocks are a mélange, often referred to as the Gwna Mélange, which contain an extraordinary mix of clasts of all sizes up to Template:Convert across and of very varied types, including both sedimentary and igneous origin. Blocks of sheared granite within this mélange are visible in the northwestern coastal cliffs of the island. Elsewhere clasts of quartzite, limestone, sandstone, mudstone, jasper and basalt can be found. The deposit is interpreted as an olistostrome, a giant underwater landslide possibly triggered by an earthquake some time after 614 million years ago.
A dolerite dyke of Ordovician age intrudes the melange at Trwyn y Gorlech in the north whilst an olivine dolerite dyke of Tertiary age is seen at Cafn Enlli in the southeast. Further dykes occur in the cliffs at Ogof y Gaseg and at Ogof Hir.
A thin spread of glacial till stretches across the centre of the island, a relict of the late Devensian Irish Sea Icesheet. There is a small patch of blown sand at Porth Solfach on the west coast and a landslip at Briw Cerrig at the foot of the cliffs on the east coast.<ref>British Geological Survey 1:50,000 scale geological map sheet 133 (England and Wales) Aberdaron and Bardsey Island (BGS, Keyworth, Notts) (with 1:10,00 inset map of Bardsey)</ref><ref>Howells, M.F. 2007 British Regional Geology: Wales (BGS, Keyworth, Notts) pp15-20</ref>
History
Template:OSM Location map Template:See also The island was inhabited in Neolithic times, and traces of hut circles remain. During the 5th century, the island became a refuge for persecuted Christians,<ref name="Bardsey">Template:Cite web</ref> and a small monastery existed.<ref>Mysterious Britain and Ireland : Bardsey Island Retrieved 16 August 2009 Template:Self-published source</ref> Around 516, Saint Einion, king of Llyn, invited the Breton Saint Cadfan to move to the island from his first residence in Tywyn.<ref name=sabi>Baring-Gould, Sabine & al. The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and Such Irish Saints as Have Dedications in Britain, Vol. II, pp. 422 ff. Chas. Clark (London), 1908. Hosted at Archive.org. Accessed 18 November 2014.</ref> Under Cadfan's guidance, St Mary's Abbey was built.<ref name="pilgrim">British Broadcasting Corporation : Pilgrims : The Northern Path Retrieved 16 August 2009 Template:Dead link</ref><ref name="Bardsey"/> For centuries, the island was important as "the holy place of burial for all the bravest and best in the land".
Bards called it "a direct path to heaven" and "the gates of Paradise",<ref name="Bardsey"/> and in medieval times three pilgrimages to Bardsey were considered to be of equivalent benefit to the soul as one to Rome.<ref name="aberdaron">Aberdaron and District Tourist Link : Places to Visit Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref>
In 1188, the abbey was still a local institution but, by 1212, it belonged to the Canons Regular.<ref name="archaeology"/> Many people still walk the journey to Aberdaron and Uwchmynydd each year in the footsteps of the saints,<ref name="tourist">Aberdaron and District Tourist Link : Aberdaron Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref> although today only ruins of the old abbey's 13th century bell tower remain.<ref name="archaeology">University College London Institute of Archaeology : Bardsey Island Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref> A Celtic cross amidst the ruins commemorates the 20,000 saints reputed to be buried on the island.<ref>Edge of Wales Walk : History Retrieved 16 August 2009 Template:Self-published source</ref>
Saint Einion is sometimes claimed to have joined the community on the island,<ref>Bardsey Island Trust. "The Early Saints Template:Webarchive". Bardsey Office (Pwllheli), 2014. Accessed 18 November 2014.</ref> although his relics are claimed by Llanengan on the mainland.<ref name=sabi/> Saint Deiniol, the Bishop of Bangor, was buried on the island in 584.<ref>St Deiniol's Library : St Deiniol : Abbot, Bishop and Confessor Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref> Saint Dyfrig was also buried on Bardsey Island, although in 1120 his remains were transferred to Llandaff centuries later.<ref>Template:Cite DWB</ref>
The Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535, on the orders of Henry VIII, resulted in St Mary's Abbey being dissolved and its buildings demolished in 1537.<ref name="history">Bardsey Island Trust : The Island : History Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref> The choir stalls, two screens and the bells were transferred to Llanengan, where the parish church was then being built.<ref name="pilgrim"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In the 16th century, Bardsey was owned by Sir John Wynn (an ancestor of the Newborough barons), who was standard bearer to Edward VI at Kett's Rebellion in Norfolk in 1549.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
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For many years Bardsey Island formed part of the Newborough Estate, and between 1870 and 1875 the island's farms were rebuilt; a small limestone quarry was opened, and a lime kiln constructed.<ref name="landmarks">Template:Cite web</ref> Carreg and Plas Bach are separate buildings, but the remaining eight were built as semi-detached houses, each pair with outbuildings set around a shared yard. The buildings are Grade II listed and, in 2008, Cadw approved a grant of £15,000 to cover the first phase of repairs.<ref>Cadw : 15 January 2008 : Funding Announced in January to Restore Some of Wales's Historic Buildings Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref> Only one of the original croglofft cottages, Carreg Bach, survives.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Given the choice of a harbour or a new church, in 1875 the islanders asked the estate to provide a place of worship; a Methodist chapel was built.<ref name="bardsey"/>
The island had a population of 90 by 1841.<ref>The National Cyclopeaedia of useful knowledge, Vol II, (1847) London, Charles Knight, p.859.</ref> It had increased to 132 in 1881; by 1961 it had fallen to seventeen.<ref>A Vision of Britain Through Time : Total Population : Bardsey Island Civil Parish Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref> By 2014, the population had dropped to eleven.<ref name="ccgc 2014">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2019 there was still a long-term population of eleven, of whom four lived on the island during the winter.<ref name="Williams">Template:Cite news</ref> By 2025, the population had dropped to three.<ref name="BBC"/> The island's small school opened in a former chapel in 1919 and closed in 1953.<ref name="landmarks"/>
The Bardsey Island Trust (Template:Langx) bought the island in 1977,<ref name="bardsey"/> after an appeal set up by the Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory and supported by the Church in Wales and many Welsh academics and public figures. The trust is financed through membership subscriptions, grants and donations, and is dedicated to protecting the wildlife, buildings and archaeological sites of the island; promoting its artistic and cultural life; and encouraging people to visit as a place of natural beauty and pilgrimage.<ref>Bardsey Island Trust : The Trust Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref>
When, in 2000, the trust advertised for a tenant for the Template:Convert sheep farm on the island, they had 1,100 applications.<ref>Abigail Hole, Etain O'Carroll and John King, Lonely Planet : Wales, 2007, Lonely Planet Publications, Footscray, 356 pages, Template:ISBN</ref> The tenancy was held by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds;<ref>Royal Society for the Protection of Birds : 14 May 2008 : News : Wildlife Wins on Bardsey Island Template:Webarchive Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref> and the land is managed to maintain the natural habitat. Oats, turnips and swedes were grown; goats, ducks, geese and chickens kept; and there is a mixed flock of sheep and Welsh Black cattle.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The RSPB pulled out of the agreement when the tenancy ended.Template:WhenTemplate:Citation needed
Bardsey apple
A gnarled and twisted apple tree, discovered by Ian Sturrock growing by the side of Plas Bach, is believed to be the only survivor of an orchard that was tended by the monks who lived there a thousand years ago.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Self-published source</ref> In 1998, experts on the varieties of British apples at the National Fruit Collection in Brogdale stated that they believed this tree was the only example of a previously unrecorded cultivar, the Bardsey Apple (Template:Langx). The cultivar has since been propagated by grafting and is available commercially.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Self-published source</ref> Since its discovery it has led to a resurgence in the discovery and propagation of other Welsh apple varieties.
Bardsey Lighthouse
Bardsey Lighthouse stands on the southerly tip of the island and guides vessels passing through St George's Channel and the Irish Sea.<ref name="topographical">Genuki : A Topographical Dictionary of Wales 1833 by Samuel Lewis Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref> It was built in 1821 by Joseph Nelson.<ref name="lighthouses">Douglas Bland Hague, Lighthouses of Wales Their Architecture and Archaeology, 1994, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, Aberystwyth, 102 pages, Template:ISBN</ref> Unusually for a British lighthouse, it is square in section and is painted in red and white bands. Y Storws, sometimes referred to as The Boathouse, was built a few years before the lighthouse, near to the landing place at Y Cafn.<ref name="landmarks"/>
Wildlife
The island was declared a National Nature Reserve in 1986,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and is part of Glannau Aberdaron ac Ynys Enlli Special Protection Area. It is now a favourite birdwatching location, on the migration routes of thousands of birds. Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory, founded in 1953, The West Midlands Bird club created a bird observatory, and also saw the opportunity to studying the ecology of a small island.<ref name="haven">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The island was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its maritime communities;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> internationally rare lichens; bryophyte, vascular plant and bird species; and intertidal communities. Nationally important flowering plants include sharp rush, rock sea lavender, small adder's tongue and western clover,<ref name="core">Template:Cite web</ref> and the rare purple loosestrife is found in places.<ref>Celtlands : Ynys Enlli : Fauna Retrieved 16 August 2009 Template:Self-published source</ref> Two nationally rare heathland lichens are found on the slopes of Mynydd Enlli: the ciliate strap lichen and golden hair lichen;<ref name="core"/> and there are over 350 lichen species in total.<ref name="natural history">Bardsey Island Trust : Natural History Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref> The leafcutter bee, named after its habit of cutting neat, rounded circles in rose leaves, used to seal the entrance to its nest, is native.<ref>Y Cafn : Winter 2007 : Leafcutter Bees Retrieved 16 August 2009 Template:Webarchive</ref>
Thousands of birds pass through each year on their way to their breeding or wintering grounds. Chiffchaffs, goldcrests and wheatears are usually the first to pass through, followed by sedge warblers and willow warblers, whitethroats and spotted flycatchers.
About thirty species of bird regularly nest on the island, including ravens, little owls, oystercatchers and the rare chough. Hundreds of seabirds, including razorbills, guillemots, fulmars and kittiwakes, spend the summer nesting on the island's eastern cliffs, the numbers reflecting the fact that there are no land predators such as rats or foxes to worry about.<ref name="haven"/> On a dark moonless night an eerie cackling can be heard across the island as 30,000 pairs of Manx shearwaters,<ref name="Rep. Bardsey Bird Fld, Obs">bbfo.org.uk</ref> come ashore to lay and incubate their eggs in abandoned rabbit warrens or newly dug burrows.<ref>Joint Nature Conservation Committee : Manx Shearwater, Puffinus puffinus Template:Webarchive Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref>
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The island is one of the best places in Gwynedd to see grey seals. In mid-summer over two hundred can be seen, sunbathing on the rocks or bobbing in the sea, and about 60 pups are born each autumn. Their sharp teeth and strong jaws are perfect for breaking the shells of lobsters and crabs which dwell in the waters. It is also possible to spot bottlenose and Risso's dolphins, and porpoises. The currents around the island are responsible for flushing in food-rich waters, and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society has been carrying out surveys since 1999 to find out which areas are particularly important for feeding and nursing calves.<ref name="haven"/>
The seas around the island are rich in marine life. There are forests of strap seaweed; in the rock pools are sea anemones, crabs and small fish; and in deeper waters, the rocks are covered by sponges and sea squirts. The yellow star anemone, found offshore, is more common to the Mediterranean.<ref name="natural history"/>
Culture
King of Bardsey
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It was tradition for the island to elect the "King of Bardsey" (Template:Langx), and from 1826 onwards,<ref name="kings archive">Y Cafn : Winter 2007 : Kings on Bardsey Retrieved 16 August 2009 Template:Webarchive</ref> he would be crowned by Baron Newborough or his representative.<ref name="kings">Cimwch : Kings of Bardsey Retrieved 16 August 2009 Template:Self-published source</ref>
In 1925, at the age of 80, Love Pritchard was concerned about the future of the crown, and wanted it to be kept at the National Museum Cardiff in Wales.<ref>Nottingham Evening Post - Monday 12 October 1925 [cover page] - https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000321/19251012/009/0001</ref> However, against king Love's wishes, the Wynn family sold the crown to the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, England in 1986<ref>Daily Post (Wales), Monday, June 26, 2000</ref> where it was stored until 2000, when it was requested by Gwynedd Council to display in a 'special exhibition'; it has since been loaned to Storiel gallery in Bangor.<ref>The Observer : 5 October 2008 : Islanders Call for Return of Welsh Crown Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref>
The first known title holder was John Williams; his son, John Williams II, the third of the recorded kings, was deposed in 1900, and asked to leave the island as he had become an alcoholic.<ref name="kings archive"/> At the outbreak of the First World War, the last king, Love Pritchard, offered himself and the men of Bardsey Island for military service, but he was refused as he was considered too old at the age of 71. Pritchard took umbrage, and declared the island a neutral power.<ref name="kings"/> In 1925, Pritchard left the island for the mainland, to seek a less laborious way of life, but died the following year.<ref name="history"/>
Notable residents
Dilys Cadwaladr, a former schoolteacher on the island, in 1953 became the first woman to win the Crown at the National Eisteddfod, for her long poem Template:Lang. Artist Brenda Chamberlain twice won the Gold Medal for Art at the Eisteddfod; in 1951 for Girl with Siamese Cat, and in 1953 with The Christin Children.<ref>Y Cafn : Spring 2007 : Island Artist : Brenda Chamberlain (1912-71) Template:Webarchive Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref> Some of the murals she painted can still be seen on the walls of Template:Lang, her home from 1947 to 1962. Wildlife artist Kim Atkinson, whose work has been widely exhibited in Wales and England, spent her childhood on the island and returned to live there in the 1980s.<ref name="arts">Template:Cite web</ref>
Yorkshire-born poet Christine Evans lived half of each year on Bardsey Island. She moved to Pwllheli as a teacher, and married into a Bardsey Island farming family.<ref>Gwasg Gomer : Author Biographies : Christine Evans Template:Webarchive Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref> Since 1998 ornithologist Steven Stansfield, has been the Warden and more recently Director of Operations of the Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory.
Since 1999, the Bardsey Island Trust has appointed an 'Artist in Residence' to spend several weeks on the island producing work which is later exhibited on the mainland. A Welsh literary residence was created in 2002; singer-songwriter Fflur Dafydd spent six weeks working on a collection of poetry and prose.<ref name="arts"/> Her play Hugo was inspired by her stay, and she has produced two novels, Template:Lang (Template:Langx), which won the prose medal at the 2006 Eisteddfod; and Twenty Thousand Saints, winner of the Oxfam Hay Prize, which tells how the women of the island, starved of men, turn to each other.<ref name="fflur">British Broadcasting Corporation : 24 May 2009 : Singer-songwriter Wins Book Prize Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref>
Film
- Edgar Ewart Pritchard, an amateur filmmaker from Brownhills, produced The Island in the Current, a colour film of life on Bardsey Island, in 1953. A copy of the film is held by the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales.<ref>The National Library of Wales : Gathering the Jewels : Film : "The Island in the Current", 1953 Template:Webarchive Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref>
Literature
James Rollins' sixth Sigma Force novel, The Doomsday Key (2009), refers to Bardsey and its mythology.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Crime writer Mark Billingham set his 2014 novel, The Bones Beneath, on Bardsey.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He includes notes on the island at the end of the book, which is one in his series of Tom Thorne novels.
Music
- Opera singer Bryn Terfel, a patron of the Bardsey Island Trust, has performed in the island's chapel.<ref name="bryn">Daily Telegraph : 11 September 2008 : Bryn Terfel : Why I Nearly Fled the Last Night Retrieved 16 August 2009</ref>
- Triple harpist Llio Rhydderch released Template:Lang (2002), an album inspired by the spiritual emotions evoked on the pilgrimages.<ref>Template:Cite bookTemplate:Self-published source</ref>
Transport
Passenger ferry services to Bardsey Island are operated from Porth Meudwy and Pwllheli by Bardsey Boat Trips and Enlli Charters.<ref>Bardsey Boat Trips : Your Ticket to Discovery Template:Webarchive Retrieved 16 August 2009 Template:Self-published source</ref><ref>Enlli Charters : Day Trips to Bardsey Island Retrieved 16 August 2009 Template:Self-published source</ref> At times, the wind and the fierce sea currents make sailing between the island and the mainland impossible. Sometimes boats are unable to reach or leave Bardsey Island for many days; seventeen visitors were stranded for two weeks in 2000 when gales prevented a boat from going to rescue them.<ref name="saints">Template:Cite news</ref>
Further reading
- Tide-race, by Brenda Chamberlain, 1962 (Template:ISBN)
References
External links
- Pages with broken file links
- Aberdaron
- Cardigan Bay
- Islands of Gwynedd
- Mountains and hills of Gwynedd
- Tourism in Gwynedd
- Sites of Special Scientific Interest in West Gwynedd
- History of Christianity in Wales
- Marilyns of Wales
- National nature reserves in Wales
- Dark sky preserves in Wales
- Monasteries dissolved under the English Reformation
- Private islands of the United Kingdom