Island 471 - Poyllvaaish, Isle of Man

Poyllvaaish or Poyll Vaaish is a small, low lying tidal island lying 150 metres offshore from the farm of the same name and a mile west of Castle town.  I think the name may refer to the whole bay, rather than just the island but it is difficult to tell from the Landranger Ordnance Survey map. 

The Manx name Poyll Vaaish translates into English as "pool of death" or "bay of death".  There are numerous theories about the origin of the name ranging from shipwrecks and drowned people to the black marble bedrock in the bay, a pool where nothing grows and blood leaking from a slaughterhouse at the nearby farm into the sea.  It has also been suggest that the second part of the name may have originally meant "baptism" or "palm of the hand/flat."

It was an easy walk from a small parking spot on the road around the shore and then across a shingle tombolo, which links the island to the mainland at low tide.  It was raining when I visited, so I didn't see the island at its best.  The island is no more than a couple of metres above the high tide level.  There are patches of bare rock with grass, sea arrowgrass, sea purslane and thrift in between them.  Many of the rocks are covered in golden and grey-green lichens.

Poyllvaaish Farm from Poyllvaaish Island

Poyllvaaish

Lichen and thrift

Shingle tombolo

Sea purslane

Holey rocks on the tomobolo -

I think these are volcanic rocks

More holey rocks on the tombolo

Poyllvaaish from the mainland