Island 50 - Gugh, Isles of Scilly

Gugh is linked by a  beautiful vanilla coloured sand tombolo known as The Bar to St Agnes at low tide and for about 3 hours either side of it.  The island is pronounced as in Hugh not goo or guff.  It is sometimes known as The Gugh. There are only 2 houses on the island, which were built in the 1920s by a Mr Cooper.  Their curved roofs were designed to withstand gales and presumably this was effective, as they are still there nearly 100 years later.

There is a coast path running round most of the island and a couple of other paths that cross the width of the island.  It is a peaceful place with no facilities for visitors.  

The remains of an English Civil War battery and a prehistoric entrance grave can apparently be seen on the Carn of Works at the south end of the island but I didn't notice them.

 

Gugh is linked by a sandbar at low tide to St Agnes

 Dropnose Point, Gugh

 - if you squint you can just make out the strangely shaped rock, which I presume gives the place its name.

 Looking from St Agnes towards Gugh from across the tombolo known locally as the Bar

 North end of Gugh

 The Old Man of Gugh

 A standing stone near the east coast of the island.  It is 9 feet high and is thought to date from the Bronze Age.

 West coast of Gugh - looking north towards The Bar

Houses on Gugh



The north end of Gugh from Kittern Hill

I presume that some of the rocks shown are the remains of some of the ancient monuments on this hill - 17 cairns, Bronze Age round houses, 2 stone lined kelp pits, an ancient field system and entrance grave - that's a lot for one small hill!

The Old Man of Gugh

Strangely shaped rocks at Dropnose Point, Gugh

The Bar at low tide looking towards St Agnes

The only houses on Gugh

 

 Obadiah's Barrow - a Neolithic and Bronze Age burial chamber

This is located on the west coast of Gugh to the north of the houses.  Its exact location wasn't clear on my OS map, so I followed a faint path that I thought might lead to it.  However it soon became overgrown with brambles, so I retraced my steps and found that it is located on a clear path, which leads to the top of the island.  The barrow was named after a man called Obadiah Hicks from St Agnes, with whom the archaeologist George Bonsor who excavated it in 1901, was lodging at the time.

Gugh from St Agnes