A lifetime of Islands: Island 207 - Barry Island, Glamorgan, Wales

Barry Island is no longer a true island, as some of the land separating it from the town of Barry was filled in when the docks were built in the 1880s.

I came to Barry Island once on a day trip from Essex (yes, I realise it was a long way to go for the day but it was a special railway trip that picked us up at the station at the bottom of our road and took us all the way to Barry) but all I remember is that it there wasn't much to do on Barry Island on a rainy Sunday in the 1970s. Therefore my expectations weren't high for my next visit 38 or so years later but I was surprised that I really liked the island. I visited on a sunny Saturday in June and the centre of the island around Whitmore Bay Beach and the Pleasure Park was very busy. However the rest of the island was pleasantly quiet. I was planning on staying for about an half an hour just to take a few photos. However the queue to get off the island when I arrived at 5pm was about a mile long, so rather than sit in a traffic jam I chose to stay for a couple of hours and explore the island properly. By the time I left at 7pm the traffic jam had disappeared.

I walked around Friars Point and Nell's Point both of which are sites of special scientific interest and on to Jackson's Bay. I was surprised to find that there are a number of residential streets on the island. A few men were hard at work trying to create some allotments out of some sloping waste land at the north end of the island. I understand that Julia Gillard, Australia's first woman prime minister was born on Barry Island.

Butlins opened a holiday camp at Nell's Point in 1966. They sold it in 1986 and it closed in 1996. The area is now a smart housing estate. There is a National Coastwatch Institution station on Nell's Point, which is manned by volunteers. The remains of Second World War gun emplacements can also be seen at Nell's Point. The RNLI opened a lifeboat station on Barry Island in 1901. Barry Yacht Club is located close to it. Barry Tourist Railway is located in the restored Victorian station building. They run trains on certain days in the summer and at other times in the year from Barry Waterfront to Barry Island.

Barry Harbour - looking north

Whitmore Bay and the Pleasure Park from Friar's Point

Friars Point and Nell's Point are SSSIs due to their unusual geology: Mercia mudstones and carboniferous limestones. Friar's Point, which is owned by the Vale of Glamorgan Council, is one of the best calcareous cowslip dominated hay meadows in south east Wales. It is home to bees, hoverflies and rare species of crickets and grasshoppers. The Pleasure Park opened in the 1920s.

Western end of the island - looking towards Barry

Queue for the train home on a summer Saturday

Barry Docks from the eastern end of the island

Former church, now a private house

If you look very closely you can see that the large window has been transformed into a solar system. The smaller windows to the right of the door are decorated with dragons.

Remains of St Baruc's chapel above Jackson's Bay at the eastern end of the island
Baruc drowned while collecting a book from Flatholm. His body was found on the beach at Barry Island and the island may be named after him.