Island 89 - Burgh Island, Devon

Burgh Island is linked to Bigbury-on-Sea in South Devon by a sandy tombolo at low tide.  At high tide the island can be reached by a sea tractor.  The main buildings on the island are the expensive Burgh Island Hotel and the Pilchard Inn.  I visited the island at low tide in September 2008 and came back for a longer look around in August 2012.

Burgh Island was inhabited in medieval times by monks, who built a chapel on the highest point of the island.  This later became a huer's hut, where someone would watch out for shoals of pilchards in the sea around the island and they would then alert local fishermen.  The island later became a hideout for pirates and smugglers.  The smuggler Tom Crocker was shot and killed by customs officers on the island in the 18th century.  The Pilchard Inn dates back to the 14th century.

In 1895 the island was bought by music hall entertainer  George Chirgwin.  In 1896 he had a small wooden hotel built, which he used as a retreat until his death in 1922.  In 1927 his widow sold it to the engineer Archibald Nettlefold.  He commissioned architect Matthew Dawson to design a luxury art deco hotel.  Famous clients included Agatha Christie, Noel Coward, Amy Johnson, Prince Edward and Wallis Simpson.

During the Second World War the hotel was used as a RAF convalescent centre.  The hotel closed in 1955 and for 30 years it was divided into self-catering flats.  In 1985 the island was bought by Beatrice and Tony Porter, who restored the hotel and reopened it in 1988.

The south east corner of the island is out of bounds to non-hotel guests.  The rest of the island is crisscrossed by worn paths and is covered with grass, brambles, a small amount of bracken and lots of wild flowers.  During my August 2012 visit the following were in flower: evening primrose, wild sweet pea, rosebay willowherb, orchids, lavatera, betony, yarrow, greater sea spurrey, thrift, red campion, sea campion, nipplewort, sea mayweed, agrimony, ragwort and several other plants I couldn't identify.

Burgh Island - the sea returns

Pilchard Inn
Not the most welcoming sign!  I'm not sure how anyone new could become a local regular if you are never allowed in!  This is the only pub I have ever come across that doesn't need or want new customers!

South Coast



Herring Cove
It looks like the rocks have been deliberately cut through.  
Maybe this was once a landing place?

Rocky South Coast

Huer's Hut at the highest point on the island

Looking east towards Bantham - Murray's Rock

Burgh Island Hotel - not open to non-residents

Pilchard Inn and Hotel

Sea Tractor and Hotel

Pilchard Inn - only hotel guests are allowed on this patio

Sea Tractor looking towards Bigbury-on-Sea

Tombolo an hour after low tide



Scarily narrow footpath over to Little Island

Island 88 - St Michael's Mount, Cornwall

St Michael's Mount is a small rocky tidal island in Mounts Bay, Cornwall.  At low tide it is linked by a man made granite causeway to Marazion.  The causeway is well maintained and you could walk across in ordinary shoes, as it dries out completely at low tide.  However I wouldn't recommend stiletto heels!  At high tide you can get a boat to the island in the summer months. 

The island has a medieval church and castle on its highest point.  There was a monastic cell attached to the abbey at Mont St Michel in France here from 1044.  In the 12th Century a Benedictine Priory was founded here.

 

St Michael's Mount was a military stronghold from 1425 and it was used by Perkin Warbeck as a base.  At the Reformation ownership passed to the Crown.  It belong to the St Aubyn family from 1660 until 1954 when it was given to the National Trust.

 

It is free to visit the island at low tide.  There are however admission charges to the Castle and the Gardens (free to National Trust members).  The island has toilets, two cafés and two gift/craft shops.

 

 

Dairy

The design was based on the kitchen at Glastonbury Abbey. It was built in the late Victorian period when a small herd of Jersey cows was kept on the island.  The herd was disbanded in 1909

 

 

Steps up to the Castle

 

Pet Cemetery

This is located on the way up to the Castle.  It was in use by the St Aubyn family from 1891-1923

 

 Giant's Heart

This is set into the cobbles on the way up to the castle

 

Gun Batteries

These were installed in the late 18th century and were mainly used for ceremonial purposes.

 

 Castle

 

Castle

 

Gardens from the Castle

 

View of the Gardens from the Castle

 

 Guardian of the Battlements

 

 Watchtower

This was rebuilt in the 1640s during the English Civil War

 

 Bottom of the funicular railway near the Quay

This is used to transport goods from the Quay to the Castle.  It is almost entirely in a tunnel.

 

Footprints

I think these were made by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh during their 2013 visit to St Michael's Mount.

 This delightful mural outside the cafe was a community art project.

 St Michael's Mount from community garden in Marazion

 Causeway at low tide

Harbour on St Michael's Mount

 Map mural

 Ferry

 Harbour at low tide

St Michael's Mount on a misty morning

Plaque on the harbour wall commemorating the visit to St Michael's Mount by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in September 1846

Island 87 - Muck, Inner Hebrides

Muck has been owned and farmed by the MacEwen family since 1896.  It has a current population of around 30 people.  The name Muck comes from the Gaelic muc mara, meaning sea pig or porpoise.  The island is composed of basalt. 

Passenger ferries from Mallaig and Arisaig land at the new slipway on the island.

There is a craft shop/café in Port Mor but no shop on the island, so you need to come prepared!  We stayed in the hostel, which was small but clean and cosy.  The lady in charge of it, who was very friendly and chatty, met us off the ferry with a wheelbarrow in which to put our luggage!  There is also a hotel, a B&B and a Yurt. 

 

Muck has been farmed since the Bronze Age.  The population of Muck peaked in 1821 at 321.  The MacLeans who owned the island at the time evicted 150 people in 1828 and they emigrated to Cape Breton.  By 1835 the remaining population had emigrated or moved to elsewhere in Scotland.  Sheep were introduced in 1835.

In 1878 Muck was let to David Weir, who developed a dairy farm making cheese and the dairy, midden and bothy beside Gallanach were built at this time.   The island is now grazed by sheep and beef cattle and there are a few pigs. 

Hostel

Muck from An Sgurr on Eigg

Burial Ground at Gallanach looking towards Eilean nan Each 

A Bronze Age burial circle is being reused as the MacEwen family graveyard.

Eigg from Muck

Island 86 - Eigg, Inner Hebrides

Eigg has changed hands many times over the centuries and quite a few times in the last one.  Many of the landlords were unsatisfactory and in 1997 the island was bought by the islanders, Highland Council and the Scottish Wildlife Trust and is now run as a trust.

We stayed at the excellent Glebe Barn hostel but there are also several B&Bs and self-catering properties to rent.  The only shop on the island is by the quay at Galmisdale, where the ferry from Mallaig docks.  There is also a good café there.

An Sgurr is the most noticeable landscape feature on the island.  It is the largest mass of columnar pitchstone lava in Great Britain.  It isn't accessible from the south side without climbing equipment but on the north west side there is a way up with just a short scramble.

An Sgurr

An Sgurr

An Sgurr

Top of An Sgurr

Singing Sands - Camus Sgiotaig

The grains of quartz squeak as you scuff your feet over them.

View from the top of the Sgurr

Bay of Laig

On the south coast near the deserted townships of Grulin is the Massacre or MacDonalds’ Cave.  In 1577 the MacLeods of Skye suffocated up to 395 MacDonalds who were hiding from them in the cave by lighting a fire at the entrance.  Nearby is Cathedral Cave.  After the Reformation Roman Catholic priests conducted services in it. 

Island 85 - Rum, Inner Hebrides

Rum can reached by Calmac ferry from Mallaig.  It is a vehicle ferry but you cannot take your car without special permission.

There are traces of human settlement on Rum as far back as 8,500 years ago.  It is likely that the people on Rum at this time were after the volcanic bloodstone, which was used as a flint substitute.  The population peaked in 1795 at 450 but in 1826 the landlord Maclean of Coll evicted 300 people to make way for sheep.  They were forced to emigrate to Nova Scotia.  By 1828 all but 2 families had followed them.  When the price of sheep fell, they too were replaced this time by deer and the island became the sporting estate of the Marquis of Salisbury. 

In 1886 it was bought by John Bullough – a cotton textile manufacturer from Lancashire.  His son George had the pseudo baronial style Kinloch Castle built in red Annan sandstone.  The house was completed in 1901.  He imported large quantities of topsoil for the grounds. The Bulloughs never spent more than 2 to 3 months a year on the island.  George died in 1939.  His wife Monica did not die until 1967 but she abandoned the island in 1954 and sold it to the Nature Conservancy Council as a National Nature Reserve in 1957.  Since 1992 it has been owned and managed by Scottish Natural Heritage.    Kinloch Castle appeared on the BBC TV series Restoration and the island has featured on the BBC's Autumnwatch for the red deer rut in October.

Kinloch Castle

The interior of Kinloch Castle is much as the Bullough family left it and it includes many animal skins on the floors.  There is also an Orchestrion, which is a mechanical organ, which imitates 40 different musical instruments.  It is still in working order and we were given a demonstration of it during our guided tour.

Excellent accommodation for £14 a night!

We were staying in the hostel, which is at the back of the building in the old servants' quarters in a dormitory but on our last night my friend and I were offered a free upgrade to stay in two of the display bedrooms that visitors are shown on their guided tours, as they needed our dormitory for some men who had arrived unexpectedly from one of the bothies.  It was a bit creepy - it felt like staying in a museum!  The bothies offering very basic accommodation are at Guiridil and Dibidil.  There is a small shop in Kinloch.  The hostel has self-catering facilities but also offers breakfast and evening meals.

Bedroom where I slept for a night in Kinloch Castle

Bullough Mausoleum, Harris

George and his wife Monica are buried here.  George blew up the first mausoleum that he had built with an interior of colourful Italian mosaics, when one of his guests told him it looked like a public toilet!  Parts of it can still be seen just up the hill from the current mausoleum.

Harris

There are no tarmac roads on Rum but there are tracks from Kinloch to Harris, 7 miles away and Kilmory, 5 miles away.  For the more energetic there are the Rum Cuillins of Askival, Hallival, Trollaval and Orval, seen from a distance in the photo below.

Harris

a long way to walk for one geocache - a 14 mile round trip!

Kilmory

 this is one of the best places to see the red deer

Kinloch Jetty

Nearly halfway to Kilmory from Kinloch

Perched stone

Rum is famous for its midges but we saw very few, as it was quite windy when we were there.  Thousands of manx shearwaters have their burrows high up on the highest mountains but they only return to them under cover of darkness.  There are also wild goats and Rum ponies but I don't remember seeing them.