Bardsey Island

Bardsey Island (Welsh: Ynys Enlli), known as the legendary "Island of 20,000 Saints", is located 1.9 miles (3.1 km) off the Llŷn Peninsula in the Welsh county of Gwynedd.[2] The Welsh name means "The Island in the Currents", although its English name refers to the "Island of the Bards",[3] or possibly the island of the Viking chieftain, "Barda".

Bardsey Island

Bardsey Island seen from Mynydd Mawr
Bardsey Island
Location within Gwynedd
Area1.79 km2 (0.69 sq mi)
Population11 (as of 2019)[1]
• Density6/km2 (16/sq mi)
OS grid referenceSH122218
Community
Principal area
Ceremonial county
CountryWales
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townPWLLHELI
Postcode districtLL53
Dialling code01758
PoliceNorth Wales
FireNorth Wales
AmbulanceWelsh
UK Parliament
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament

Bardsey is 0.6 miles (1.0 km) wide, 1.0 mile (1.6 km) long and 179 hectares (440 acres; 0.69 sq mi) in area.[4] The north east rises steeply from the sea to a height of 548 feet (167 m) at Mynydd Enlli,[5] 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 to a peninsula on which the lighthouse stands.[6] Since 1974 it has been included in the community of Aberdaron.[7] It is the fourth largest offshore island in Wales.

The island has been an important religious site since the 6th century, when it is said that the Welsh kings of Llŷn and Saint Cadfan founded a monastery there[8] In medieval times it was a major centre of pilgrimage and, by 1212, belonged to the Augustinian Canons Regular.[9] The monastery was dissolved and its buildings demolished by Henry VIII in 1537,[10] but the island remains an attraction for pilgrims to this day.[10]

Bardsey Island is now as famous for its wildlife and rugged scenery. A bird observatory was established in 1953, largely due to the island's position on important migration routes.[11] It is of European importance, cited as a nesting place for Manx shearwaters and choughs, its rare plants, and habitats undisturbed by modern farming practices.[12] It is one of the best places in Gwynedd to see grey seals, and the waters around the island attract dolphins and porpoises.[11]

The spirituality and sacredness of the island, its relative remoteness, and its legendary claim to be the burial site of Merlin[13] have given it a special place in the cultural life of Wales, attracting artists, writers and musicians to its shores.[14] It has inspired award-winning literature,[15] and attracted internationally renowned singers.[16] Bardsey Island also marks the end point of the North Wales Pilgrims Way.[17]

Geology
1850 Geological map

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 100 metres (330 feet) across and of very varied types, including both sedimentary and igneous origin. Blocks of sheared granite within this melange 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.[18][19]

History
Map of Bardsey Island[20]

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, and a small monastery existed.[21] Around 516, Saint Einion, king of Llyn, invited the Breton Saint Cadfan to move to the island from his first residence in Tywyn.[22] Under Cadfan's guidance, St Mary's Abbey was built.[23] For centuries, the island was important as "the holy place of burial for all the bravest and best in the land".

Bards called it "the land of indulgences, absolution and pardon, the road to Heaven, and the gate to Paradise", and in medieval times three pilgrimages to Bardsey were considered to be of equivalent benefit to the soul as one to Rome.[24]

In 1188, the abbey was still a local institution but, by 1212, it belonged to the Canons Regular.[9] Many people still walk the journey to Aberdaron and Uwchmynydd each year in the footsteps of the saints,[25] although today only ruins of the old abbey's 13th century bell tower remain.[9] A Celtic cross amidst the ruins commemorates the 20,000 saints reputed to be buried on the island.[26]

Saint Einion is sometimes claimed to have joined the community on the island,[27] although his relics are claimed by Llanengan on the mainland.[22] Saint Deiniol, the Bishop of Bangor, was buried on the island in 584.[28] Saint Dyfrig was also buried on Bardsey Island, although in 1120 his remains were transferred to Llandaff.

Ruins of St Mary's Abbey

The Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries Act of 1536, on the orders of Henry VIII, resulted in St Mary's Abbey being dissolved and its buildings demolished in 1537.[10] The choir stalls, two screens and the bells were transferred to Llanengan, where the parish church was then being built.[23]

Bardsey Chapel in about 1885

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.[29] 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.[30] Only one of the original croglofft cottages, Carreg Bach, survives.[31] 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.[6]

The island had a population of 90 by 1841.[32] It had increased to 132 in 1881; by 1961 it had fallen to seventeen.[33] The island's small school, opened in a former chapel in 1919, closed in 1953.[29] In 2019 there was a long-term population of eleven, of whom four lived on the island during the winter.[1]

The Bardsey Island Trust (Welsh: Ymddiriedolaeth Ynys Enlli) bought the island in 1979,[6] after an appeal 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.[34]

When, in 2000, the trust advertised for a tenant for the 440 acres (180 ha) sheep farm on the island, they had 1,100 applications.[35] The tenancy is now held by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds;[36] and the land is managed to maintain the natural habitat. Oats, turnips and swedes are grown; goats, ducks, geese and chickens kept; and there is a mixed flock of sheep and Welsh black cattle.[37]

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.[38][39][40] 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 (Welsh: Afal Enlli). The cultivar has since been propagated by grafting and is available commercially.[41] Since its discovery it has led to a resurgence in the discovery and propagation of other Welsh apple varieties.

Bardsey Lighthouse
Bardsey Lighthouse
Main article: 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.[42] It was built in 1821 by Joseph Nelson.[43] 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.[29]

Wildlife

The island was declared a National Nature Reserve in 1986,[44] and is part of Glannau Aberdaron ac Ynys Enlli Special Protection Area. It is now a favourite bird-watching location, on the migration routes of thousands of birds. Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory, founded in 1953, catches and rings birds to understand their migration patterns.[11][45]

16,000 pairs of Manx shearwaters come ashore each year, under cover of darkness, to nest on Bardsey Island.

The island was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its maritime communities;[46] 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,[12] and the rare purple loosestrife is found in places.[47] Two nationally rare heathland lichens are found on the slopes of Mynydd Enlli: the ciliate strap lichen and golden hair lichen;[12] and there are over 350 lichen species in total.[48] 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.[49]

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.

Bardsey Island is one of the best places in Gwynedd to see grey seals. About 25-30 pups are born each autumn

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.[11] On a dark moonless night an eerie cackling can be heard across the island as 16,000 pairs of Manx shearwaters, five percent of the British population,[50] come ashore to lay and incubate their eggs in abandoned rabbit warrens or newly dug burrows.[51]

A bottlenose dolphin swimming in sunset in Porth Neigwl (Hell's Mouth) Bay

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 fifteen 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.[11]

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.[48]

Culture

King of Bardsey

It was tradition for the island to elect the King of Bardsey (Welsh:Brenin Enlli), and from 1826 onwards,[52] he would be crowned by Baron Newborough or his representative.[53] The crown was kept at Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, although it has since been moved to Storiel, in Bangor.[54] 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.[52] 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.[53] In 1925, Pritchard left the island for the mainland, to seek a less laborious way of life, but died the following year.[10]

Notable residents
Several artists and writers successful at the National Eisteddfod were inspired by their time on Bardsey Island.

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 Y Llen. 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.[55] Some of the murals she painted can still be seen on the walls of Carreg, 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.[14]

Yorkshire born poet Christine Evans lives half of each year on Bardsey Island. She moved to Pwllheli as a teacher, and married into a Bardsey Island farming family. While on maternity leave in 1976, she started writing poems, and her first book was published seven years later. Cometary Phrases was Welsh Book of the Year 1989 and she was the winner of the inaugural Roland Mathias Prize in 2005.[56]

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.[14] Her play Hugo was inspired by her stay, and she has produced two novels, Atyniad (English: Attraction), 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.[15]

Film

Literature

James Rollins' sixth Sigma Force novel, The Doomsday Key (2009) refers to Bardsey and its mythology.[58]

Crime writer Mark Billingham set his 2014 novel, The Bones Beneath, on Bardsey.[59] 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.[16]
  • Triple harpist Llio Rhydderch released Enlli (2002), an album inspired by the spiritual emotions evoked on the pilgrimages.[60]

Transport

Passenger ferry services to Bardsey Island are operated from Porth Meudwy and Pwllheli by Bardsey Boat Trips and Enlli Charters.[61][62] 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; in 2000 seventeen island visitors became stranded for two weeks when gales prevented a boat from going to rescue them.[63]

Further reading
  • Tide-race, by Brenda Chamberlain, 1962 (ISBN 9780907476658)

References
  1. Williams, Kelly (28 May 2019). "Why family that went to live on Bardsey Island quit it after just one day". Daily Post. Colwyn Bay. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  2. Encyclopædia Britannica : Bardsey Island Retrieved 16 August 2009
  3. Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, 1849, S Lewis and Co, London, 474 pages
  4. "Ynys Enlli". Natural Resources Wales. Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  5. Lleyn Peninsula West (Map). 1:25000. Ordnance Survey. 2005. ISBN 9780319244494. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  6. Gwynedd Archaeological Trust : Bardsey Archived 16 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 16 August 2009 to 2010
  7. Ordnance Survey : Election Maps : Gwynedd Retrieved 16 August 2009
  8. BBC, Travel (13 April 2016). "The tiny island of 20,000 graves". BBC. Amanda Ruggeri. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  9. University College London Institute of Archaeology : Bardsey Island Retrieved 16 August 2009
  10. Bardsey Island Trust : The Island : History Retrieved 16 August 2009
  11. "Wildlife Haven". British Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 18 December 2007. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  12. "Core Management Plan Including Conservation Objectives for Clogwyni Pen Llŷn SAC". Countryside Council for Wales. Archived from the original on 19 February 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
  13. "The enchanted wood". www.smh.com.au. The Age. 26 March 2005. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  14. "Enlli and the Arts". Bardsey Island Trust. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016.
  15. British Broadcasting Corporation : 24 May 2009 : Singer-songwriter Wins Book Prize Retrieved 16 August 2009
  16. Daily Telegraph : 11 September 2008 : Bryn Terfel : Why I Nearly Fled the Last Night Retrieved 16 August 2009
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  18. 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)
  19. Howells, M.F. 2007 British Regional Geology: Wales (BGS, Keyworth, Notts) pp15-20
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  21. Mysterious Britain and Ireland : Bardsey Island Retrieved 16 August 2009
  22. 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.
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  30. Cadw : 15 January 2008 : Funding Announced in January to Restore Some of Wales's Historic Buildings Retrieved 16 August 2009
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  32. The National Cyclopeaedia of useful knowledge, Vol II, (1847) London, Charles Knight, p.859.
  33. A Vision of Britain Through Time : Total Population : Bardsey Island Civil Parish Retrieved 16 August 2009
  34. Bardsey Island Trust : The Trust Retrieved 16 August 2009
  35. Abigail Hole, Etain O'Carroll and John King, Lonely Planet : Wales, 2007, Lonely Planet Publications, Footscray, 356 pages, ISBN 978-1-74104-538-3
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  37. "Agriculture". Bardsey Island Trust. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016.
  38. Smith, Malcolm (22 March 2003). "The Sainted Apple". The Times. p. 12. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
  39. Tunstall, Jill (6 October 2007). "The man who rescues trees". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 June 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
  40. "Afan Ynys Enlli - Bardsey Island Apple". Archived from the original on 16 May 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
  41. "Bardsey Island Apple". Ian Sturrock & Sons.
  42. Genuki : A Topographical Dictionary of Wales 1833 by Samuel Lewis Retrieved 16 August 2009
  43. Douglas Bland Hague, Lighthouses of Wales Their Architecture and Archaeology, 1994, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, Aberystwyth, 102 pages, ISBN 1-871184-08-8
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  45. "Bardsey Lodge and Bird Observatory – About". Retrieved 18 September 2016.
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  47. Celtlands : Ynys Enlli : Fauna Retrieved 16 August 2009
  48. Bardsey Island Trust : Natural History Retrieved 16 August 2009
  49. Y Cafn : Winter 2007 : Leafcutter Bees Retrieved 16 August 2009 Archived 26 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  50. Else, Richard (2010). "Manx Shearwater population Census and productivity monitoring". Bardsey Bird Observatory Report. 57: 111–114.
  51. Joint Nature Conservation Committee : Manx Shearwater, Puffinus puffinus Retrieved 16 August 2009
  52. Y Cafn : Winter 2007 : Kings on Bardsey Retrieved 16 August 2009 Archived 26 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
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  54. The Observer : 5 October 2008 : Islanders Call for Return of Welsh Crown Retrieved 16 August 2009
  55. Y Cafn : Spring 2007 : Island Artist : Brenda Chamberlain (1912-71) dead link] Retrieved 16 August 2009
  56. Gwasg Gomer : Author Biographies : Christine Evans Archived 7 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 16 August 2009
  57. The National Library of Wales : Gathering the Jewels : Film : "The Island in the Current", 1953 Archived 15 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 16 August 2009
  58. Rollins, James (2009). The Doomsday Key. pp. Chapter 19 and Fact or Fiction.
  59. Billingham, Mark (27 May 2014). "The Story Behind The Bones Beneath by Mark Billingham". UPCOMING4ME. Archived from the original on 8 July 2014.
  60. Llio Rhydderch. The Enlli Suite. Archived from the original on 8 October 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
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  62. Enlli Charters : Day Trips to Bardsey Island Retrieved 16 August 2009
  63. "Island of 20,000 Saints". BBC. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 16 August 2009.
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