A lifetime of Islands: May 2023

Bannow Island hasn't been a true island for several centuries: it was still an island c1660 but since then the channel to the east of the island has silted up and it is now firmly attached to the mainland. There is one farm on the island and some ruined buildings. You can walk along the beach but you can only walk up the road as far as the entrance gates of the farm

On 1st May 1169 an army of c400 Norman archers, knights and men-at-arms landed on Irish soil for the first time, at Bannow Island. They had been invited to Ireland by the Diarmuid McMurrough, the deposed King of Leinster, who wanted them to help him regain his kingdom. From Bannow, Irish warriors loyal to Diarmuid McMurrough and the Norman army marched to Wexford. After a short siege they defeated the descendants of Vikings, who had settled there. Over the following century a Norman town grew up at Bannow. It declined in the mid-14th century, due to the Black Death and then its harbour silted up. The only visible remains of this town today are the ruins of St Mary's Church.

Bannow Bay is a Special Area of Conservation and a Special Protection Area for birds. Around 20,000 wildfowl, including light-bellied brent geese, shelduck, widgeon and teal overwinter on the extensive sandflats, sand dunes and saltmarshes.

Bannow Island Beach

Bannow Island

Bannow Island - the road is private beyond here

Ruined buildings on Bannow Island

Bannow Island

Spurn Head is Britain's newest tidal island. It is a dynamic coastal system feature: a 3 mile long spit made of sand, shingle and boulder clay. It is located at the mouth of the Humber Estuary and is attached to the Holderness district of East Yorkshire just south of the village of Kilnsea. At its narrowest point it is only 50 metres wide and there is a 1km "washover" section of sand which gets covered by the sea at high tides. Until 2013 there was a public road running the whole length of the peninsula. Occasionally sections of it were washed away by storms but it was always repaired. However after a large section was washed away in 2013, a decision was made to stop repairing it and to allow Spurn to become a tidal island.

The sand, shingle and boulder clay that Spurn is made from has eroded from the Holderness coastline to the south of Flamborough Head and this has been washed down the coast by longshore drift. There are almost as many theories about the stages in Spurn's formation as there are geomorphologists who have studied it.

In the middle ages two ports were established in the vicinity of Spurn (their exact locations are as yet unknown): Ravenser Odd was established c1235 but washed away in a storm in 1362 and Ravenspurn, which suffered the same fate few centuries later. Henry of Bolingbroke (later King Henry IV) landed at Ravenspurn in 1399 on his way to dethrone King Richard II. Edward IV landed at Ravenspurn in 1471 from his exile in the Netherlands to reclaim his throne from Henry VI but was met by hostile local residents led by Martin de la See.

Spurn is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a National Nature Reserve, which has been owned and managed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust since they purchased it in 1959. They run the Spurn Discovery Centre at Kilnsea, which was opened in 2018. It has a café, toilets, shop and information about wildlife at Spurn. There is a separate bird observatory at Kilnsea, because Spurn is a great place to watch migrating birds.

It is free to walk to Spurn Head (there is a charge for parking in the car park at Kilnsea) but if you can't or don't want to walk, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust also offer Spurn Safaris on their Unimog, which is an adapted 4x4 ex-military truck. The safaris with a knowledgeable guide last 3 hours and include a visit to the lighthouse. In 2023 the cost was £22 for an adult and £12 for a child.

A lifeboat station was built at Spurn in 1810. In 1819 houses were built next to the boat house to accommodate the lifeboatmen and their families. Until 1908 the station was run by Hull Trinity House. From 1908 to 1911 it was run by the Humber Conservancy Board. It was then taken over by the RNLI. Robert Cross was coxswain of the lifeboat from 1911 until he retired in 1943 aged 67. During this time he took part in the rescue of 403 people. The lifeboat station was known as Spurn until 1924 when its name was changed to Humber. It is the only RNLI lifeboat station with a full-time paid crew, due to its remoteness. The 1819 houses were replace in 1975 by new ones. In 2012 the decision was taken to relocate the families of the lifeboat crew to Kilnsea. The lifeboat crew still live in the houses when they are on shift.

There is currently a Humber Pilots' lookout tower on the end of Spurn. They shared this with HM Coastguard until about the late 1980s when the Coastguard moved to Bridlington.

The earliest reference to a lighthouse on Spurn Head was in 1427. In the 17th century there was a pair of lighthouses - high and low lights. John Smeaton was commissioned to build a new pair of lighthouses on Spurn in 1767. Smeaton's low light was soon washed away by the sea but his high light remained in use until 1895. Several temporary replacements were built to replace the low light until a solid replacement designed by James Walker was built by engineer Henry Norris in 1852. It is still standing on the sands on the western side of Spurn but its lantern has been replaced by a water tank. Smeaton's high light was replaced in 1895 by a brick lighthouse designed by Thomas Matthews. It had a range of 17 nautical miles and 3 separate sector lights: 2 of these marked shoals/sandbanks and the 3rd showed the main channel along the Humber estuary. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1985. It was restored by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust 2013-16 and is now open to visitors at weekends. It is 128 feet high and is the tallest lighthouse in northern England.

During the First World War two coastal artillery batteries were built on Spurn Head. In 1915 a 3.75 mile railway was constructed from Kilnsea to a specially constructed pier at Spurn Head. The railway line had 2 passing loops (mid-way and near Kilnsea) and 3 sidings at the Kilnsea end. A saddle tank steam engine called Kenyon was used on the line until 1929. There was one coach and 2 open wagons. In the 1920s 3 petrol Drewry railcars were used on the line in succession. In 1929 a brand new Hardy railcar was purchased for the line. It was replaced in 1933 by a Hudswell Clark railcar, which ran on the line until it closed. Sail bogeys or trolleys were used on the line from the end of the First World War. They were wooden platforms with flanged wheels, which were powered by a sail. They were used by lifeboatmen and the War Department staff.

During the Second World War LNER engine 559 was taken to Spurn, where it was nicknamed Black Sapper. There were 3 box vans and 3 open wagons. The railway line closed in 1952 and was dismantled. The railway pier was dismantled in the 1970s.

The caterpillars of the brown tailed moth first became a problem on Spurn in 2006. They form cobweb-like nests on the sea buckthorn. The caterpillars have hairs on them, which cause rashes, skin irritation, eye infections and breathing difficulties in some people. The hairs can break off the caterpillars and blow about in the wind. Volunteers for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust actively destroys as many webs and caterpillars as they can but they can't remove them all.