Wednesday 10 August 2011

Island 134 - Eilean Donan, Scotland

I visited Eilean Donan Castle, which is probably one of the most photographed castles in Scotland, in 1976 but I am not sure how I forgot that it is on an island, the name alone should have reminded me!  The name means Donnan's IslandDonnan was possibly an Irish Pict born c550 AD who travelled to Scotland to introduce Christianity to the people there.  He was martyred on the island of Eigg in 617.  After his death he was canonised.  He is said to have built a church or monastic cell on Eilean Donan but no traces of it remain.

The island is small and tidal.  It is located close to the village of Dornie and near to the point where three lochs meet: Alsh, Duich and Long.  The island is now linked to the mainland by a bridge. 

The original castle was built c1230 during the reign of King Alexander II to protect Kintail against the Vikings. It later became a stronghold of the Clans Mackenzie, Macrae and Maclennan.

The castle was destroyed in 1719 after some Spanish allies of the James Stuart, the Old Pretender (son of the deposed King James II), who had occupied it, surrendered to the British Navy.

The castle was rebuilt 1912-32 by Lieutenant Colonel John MacRae-Gilstrap, who bought the island in 1911.   The castle is open to the public from February to December.

Eilean Donan
 
Eilean Donan Castle
 
Low tide at Eilean Donan

Island 133 - Foulness, Essex

Foulness is the largest island in the Thames Estuary.  The perimeter of the island is over 14 miles and it covers 2,430 hectares, half of which is farmed.  The rest is used by the Ministry of Defence.  It is currently managed by the private company Qinetiq.   The island is located to the north east of Great Wakering and Shoeburyness. It is surrounded by the Rivers Crouch and Roach and the North Sea.   It is accessed via a hydraulic lifting bridge over the Havengore Creek.  You cross first on to Havengore Island and then New England Island before reaching Foulness.  The first bridge across to Foulness was built in 1922.  Before that the only access other than by boat was across an ancient raised track called the Broomway, which was only accessible at low tide.

Foulness Island is extremely flat.  It is also extremely difficult to visit if you don’t know someone who lives there.  The Heritage Centre at Churchend is open on the first Sunday of the month between April and October from 12pm-4pm.  That is only 6 afternoons a year.  I think it is also probably open at other times by prior arrangement to organised groups.  You have to stop at the barrier just beyond Samuel’s Corner and give your name, address and car registration number.  You are then given a pass and told to drive directly to Churchend.  You are not allowed to stop anywhere else or take photos of any military installations.  You are not allowed access to the hamlet of Courtsend. 

The earliest known occupants of Foulness and its neighbouring islands were the Romano-British.  A civilian settlement dated to the late 1st- late 3rd centuries AD has been discovered at Little Shelford in the South West of the island.  Finds included cremation urns and domestic pottery.  The people who lived there were farmers and fishermen, including the cultivation of oysters but the production of salt seems to have been the main occupation.  The settlement was then abandoned due to rising sea levels. 

The first recorded reference to sea walls was in the Charter Rolls of 1271.  From the late 14th century there were 7 phases of land reclamation, the last of which was on the southern side of the island in 1833.  In Medieval times the island was inhabited by shepherds and fishermen.  There was also some arable farming and the island became well known for its dairy produce.    There were 3 main phases of building – mid 16th century, late 17th/early 18th century and late 19th/early 20th century. 

The population increased from the 16th century due to the development of arable farming and by the late 19th century almost 800 people lived there.  The current population is around 200.  The decline was due to mechanisation of agriculture, demolition of some houses to make way for firing ranges, the 1953 floods left some houses unfit for human habitation, the MOD has increased rents in recent years, some people no longer wanted to live with the military restrictions that exist and moved elsewhere, families are now generally much smaller in size and the MOD no longer employs as many people as it once did. 

The George and Dragon public house has closed in the last few years, as there was no passing trade and the number of people working on the island has been reduced.  The Village Hall has also recently closed in recent years, so community social gatherings now have nowhere, except the Heritage Centre to meet.  There is still a small shop and post office but without any passing trade it isn’t very profitable. 

In 1283 a chapel was built on the island.  This was replaced in the Tudor period by a wooden church, which was replaced by the present church built of Kentish ragstone – St Mary the Virgin, St Thomas and All Angels, which was opened in 1853.  However the church is now closed, as it is in a dangerous condition.

In 1846 the Church of England primary school was built to take 120 children.  It was extended in 1872 to take an additional 52 children but was closed in 1988 by which time the number of pupils had fallen to 11.  It remained empty for 13 years until it was renovated and turned into the Heritage Centre by the Foulness Conservation and Archaeological Society.  The Heritage Centre was very busy on the afternoon I visited in August 2011, so it was difficult to see all the exhibits.  It is certainly crammed full of artefacts and articles about life on Foulness in times gone by.  They were also selling a cup of tea and an excellent cupcake for 50p each.
 
The island was owned by a succession of Lords of the Manor until 1915 when it was sold to the War Department.  The housing is all owned by the MOD and the land is rented by 6 farmers.   Most of the island is good quality arable land and wheat, barley, oil seed rape, linseed peas and beans are grown.  The low lying land is drained by a complex system of drains and ditches.   Cows and sheep are grazed on the areas unsuitable for arable crops.

The island was badly flooded in January 1953 when the whole of the east coast from Lincolnshire to Kent suffered a storm surge.  2 people drowned and many animals were lost but the farmland recovered within a few years. 

The presence of the MOD on the island means that crime is virtually non-existent.  Their ownership has also benefited the wildlife, as the island has not been developed and the areas that aren’t farmed are relatively undisturbed – apart from when the firing range is operating!  It is home at various times of year to wading birds such as oystercatchers, avocets, little egrets and brent geese.  I’m told that there is a beach made of cockleshells on the island but it isn’t in the area that you can visit. 

In 1973 the government planned to build London’s 3rd airport on the Maplin Sands to the south east of the island.  However the plans were cancelled in 1974 much to the relief of the residents of the island and of Southend, as the plans also included a motorway along the seafront at Southend and a high speed rail link.  

 War Memorial
 
 Old School - now the Heritage Centre

View from the churchyard

 Church

 Church

George and Dragon Pub - currently closed
In the 19th century the garden was apparently used for bare knuckle fighting.  There used to be another pub at Courtsend - the King's Head

Island 132 - New England Island, Essex

New England Island is situated between Havengore and Foulness Islands.  It has been owned by the Ministry of Defence since 1915 and is very low lying and uninhabited.  It is used for grazing animals.  You can drive across it on the first Sunday of the month between April and October from 12pm-4pm but you cannot stop on the island or take any photos of the military installations. 

Island 131 - Havengore, Essex

Havengore Island is a low lying marshy island in south east Essex separated from Great Wakering by Havengore Creek and linked to New England Island.  There has been a bridge across Havengore Creek since the 1920s and the current lifting bridge was installed in the 1980s.  The island is owned by the Ministry of Defence and access is restricted.  You can drive across it on the first Sunday of the month between April and October from 12pm-4pm in order to visit the Foulness Heritage Centre but you are not allowed to stop on the island or take photographs.  Some of the island is farmed and there is one farmhouse. 

Island 130 - Havergate, Suffolk

Havergate Island was bought by the RSPB in 1948 after avocets bred on the island for the first time in Britain in 100 years.  It is located towards the mouth of the River Ore on the western side of the Orford Ness spit.   

Boat trips are organised periodically by the RSPB and the dates are advertised on their website.  I booked several months in advance and the cost was £15.  The boat only takes about 15 passengers.  The boat departs from the end of the short quay close to where the National Trust ferry to Orford next departs from.  However I wasn't sure where the boat went from and there was no notice about it anywhere, so I asked in the National Trust Office at the quay and a less than welcoming lady staffing it said it was nothing to do with the National Trust, which I knew already!  Although the island is in a tidal zone, you are unlikely to get seasick on the 15 minute journey, as it is sheltered by Orford Ness on its southeast side and the mainland on the north west.  It is separated from Orford Ness by the Narrows and from the mainland by a channel called the Gull.  There were lots of small sailing boats sailing round the island on the day I visited in August 2011. 

The island is very flat and was previously farmed.  The first sea walls around the island were built about 500 years ago to prevent flooding and allow the island to be farmed.  The soil is rich and silty.  Crops were grown and when the soil become poorer the island was used for grazing livestock.  In the early 20th century it was owned by Mr Fisk and farmed by the Brinkley Family.   In the 1923 gravel was extracted but by the end of the 1920s the island had been abandoned.   It isn't the world's most exciting island unless you are interested in bird watching.

I visited in August 2011 and the wildlife highlight at that time of year is the spoonbills.  They don't currently breed on the island but visit in July/August for a few weeks on their way from the Netherlands  to fatten up on shrimps in preparation for their long journey to Senegal where they overwinter.  I'm not a great birdwatcher but the spoonbills were interesting and there were plenty of avocets, curlews, godwits and other wading birds to see.  

There is also a population of brown hares on the island and because they have no natural predators on the island, it is possible to get quite close to them.  They are mainly to be found towards the south of the island by the wardens' huts. 


 North Hide

 
View from one of the hides
 Visitors' Centre and Main Hide

 
 South East Coast

 
 View from one of the hides
 Landing Jetty 

 
 Wardens' Huts

 Wardens' Huts on shingle bank

 
South East Coast - looking towards the landing jetty

Island 129 - Scolt Head, Norfolk

Scolt Head is a barrier island situated off the North Norfolk coast to the north of Burnham Overy Staithe.  It is a national nature reserve and is managed by Natural England, although it is owned by the National Trust and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust.   It is a very young island, as it is thought that it only started to form 1,000 years ago and it is still growing in a westerly direction.  It is composed of glacial shingle on top of which sand and silt have been deposited.  The island can be divided into 4 zones - shingle, intertidal mud and sand flats, sand dunes and salt marsh.  Terns nest at the west end of the island in large numbers, in particular sandwich terns but also little, common and a few arctic terns.  I visited in August and although the main breeding season was over, there were a few terns flying around.   I also saw sea lavender and sea holly in flower, oystercatchers and small heath and wall butterflies.

The hardest part about visiting Scolt Head is trying to find details of the ferry service in advance.  According to English Nature ferry times are advertised at Burnham Over Staithe but I could find no contact details for the boatman anywhere online.  Eventually after several fruitless phone calls I spoke to a lady from the Harbour Trust, who said it wasn't run by them but that the ferry operates about 2 hours either side of high tide.  I booked accommodation in Wells-next-the-Sea Youth Hostel in the hope that I would be able to visit and drove to Burnham Overy Staithe 3 hours before high tide but despite walking up and down the quayside and car park I could see nothing about the ferry, although I could see the ferry boat moored in the harbour.  Eventually at 9.30 the Boathouse opened and they had a notice displayed denying all knowledge about the ferry but with the boatman's telephone number, so I rang him and he confirmed that he would be running the ferry that morning.  Perhaps English Nature don't want to encourage too many visitors but I would have thought the boatman would like as many visitors as possible in order to make more money, so wonder why the ferry isn't advertised anywhere?  The ferry goes from the main quay in Burnham Overy Staithe.  In August it was a very popular spot for holidaymakers to launch their dinghies and kayaks or to go crabbing.

There are no facilities on the island at all and the paths are pretty indistinct in places, although you can also walk along the sandy beach that runs along the north of the island.   On a calm sunny day it was a lovely place to spend a couple of hours.  Lots of people had sailed out there in their own boats or kayaks and there were dozens of them hauled up on the beach at the eastern end of the island but once I walked a couple of hundred metres west 95% of them disappeared and I had the rest of the island to myself.

 Sea Lavender

 North side of the island, eastern end


 South side of the island - marram grass and marsh


 Ferry from Burnham Overy Staithe - landing on the eastern end of Scolt Head


 Sea Holly in flower

North Coast

High tide on the south coast