A lifetime of Islands: August 2019

Sunday 25 August 2019

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

Wednesday 21 August 2019

Island 470 - The Niarbyl, Isle of Man

The Niarbyl is a tidal island located off the west coast of the Isle of Man to the south west of the village of Dalby. Niarbyl means "tail" in Manx and the way the island and the rocks beyond it jut out into the Irish Sea does look a bit like a tail. The Niarbyl can be reached by picking your way carefully round the rockpools and across the seaweed covered rocks from the beach by the cottages at Niarbyl Bay. The island lies about 200 metres offshore. I didn't think I was going to be able to climb to the top of it but on close inspection I discovered that there was one easy way up to the top, which required only a minor bit of scrambling. The top of the island is covered in grass and thrift.

The Niarbyl is composed of sandstones belonging to the Dalby Group of rocks. At Niarbyl Bay the Dalby Group meets the rocks of the Manx Group of mudstones in a dramatic fault line, which can clearly be seen at the bottom of the cliffs on the mainland. The Dalby Group came from the ancient continent of Laurentia, of which Scotland and North America are parts. The Manx Group came from the ancient continent of Gondwana, of which southern England and Africa are parts, so what is exposed at Niarbyl Bay is the meeting of two continents. The fault is the only remnant of the Iapetus Ocean, which once separated the two continents.

Looking south down the west coast of the Isle of Man

Base of The Niarbyl

Cottages at Niarbyl Bay from the island

Looking north east from The Niarbyl

Top of the island

Looking north east from the island

Looking south east from the top of The Niarbyl

Looking west towards The Niarbyl

The Niarbyl Fault - North America meets Africa

Sunday 18 August 2019

Island 469 - Ellan Vretyn, Langness Point, Isle of Man

Ellan Vretyn is a small tidal island, which is located at Dreswick Point in the south east corner of the Langness Peninsula, which is itself at the south east corner of the Isle of Man. There is a well maintained bridge to Ellan Vretyn because the Langness Lighthouse foghorn is located on the island. The foghorn looked freshly painted when I visited in early July 2019 but I think it was decommissioned in 1987. I spotted thrift, yellow bedstraw, thyme, scabious, sea mayweed, white clover, sea campion, hawkweed, bird's-foot trefoil and ling heather growing on the island.

Langness Lighthouse, which was built in 1880, was demoted to the status of a minor light in 1994. The lighthouse cottages were at one time owned by Jeremy Clarkson. In 2010 he was ordered by a court to reopen a footpath close to his home, which he had diverted because he claimed it breached his human rights and that members of the public were invading his privacy by looking through one of the windows. I don't know if he still owns the buildings but you can now rent the cottages as self-catering holiday accommodation.

Bridge to Ellan Vretyn

Foghorn on Ellan Vretyn

Langness Lighthouse from Ellan Vretyn

Looking north from Ellan Vretyn towards the Herring Tower on Langness

Foghorn

Bridge to Ellan Vretyn and Langness Lighthouse

Langness Lighthouse and cottages

Wednesday 14 August 2019

Island 468 - Langness Point 2, Isle of Man

Langness Point is at the south west end of the Langness Peninsula, which is located at the south east corner of the Isle of Man. There are actually two tidal islands. I visited the one sandwiched between the mainland of Langness and the outer island to the west of it. I have called the island I visited Langness Point 2. It is no more than 100 metres in diameter and has a flat grass covered top. There were a few thrift plants still in flower but it would be covered in a sea of pink flowers in May and June. I also spotted yellow bedstraw, sea mayweed, clover, sea beet, sea campion, centaury, bell heather, hawkweed and bird's foot trefoil growing on the island.

It was easy to walk across to Langness Point 2 at low tide and then it was a very minor scramble on to the top of the island, which is no more than about 8 metres above sea level. It would have required some serious rock scrambling to get down to sea level at the western end and then up on to the outer island, which I am going to call Langness Point 1 and I don't possess those skills.

Looking west over the outer part of Langness Point

Looking east towards the lighthouse and herring tower on Langness

Langness Point 2

Tidal gap between Langness and Langness Point

Beadlet anemones in the gap between Langness and Langness Point

Tidal gap between Langness and Langness Point

Rock pool in the gap between Langness and Langness Point

Looking south west towards Langness Point 2

Sunday 11 August 2019

Island 467 - St Michael's Island/Fort Island, Isle of Man

St Michael's or Fort Island is located on the south eastern side of Derby Haven bay and to the north east of the Langness Peninsula, the southern tip of which is the most southerly part of the Isle of Man. St Michael's Island is joined to the Isle of Man by a causeway at its southern end. There is a narrow road across the causeway leading to a large car park. The island is very popular with local dog walkers, not all of whom pick up the droppings left by their pets, so you need to watch where you are treading.

There are two interesting historic buildings on St Michael's Island: St Michael's Chapel and the Derby Fort.

St Michael's Chapel was probably built by Norse Celtic Christians in the early 12th century, possibly on the site of an early Christian keeill. It was constructed from local stone, including limestone, shore boulders, volcanic ash and agglomerate. The chapel is rectangular with a bell cote at the western end and a doorway on the south side. It was divided into three sections and was originally roofed with Manx slate, although it has been unroofed for at least the last 300 years. It is not known when it was last in use as a chapel. The chapel is surrounded by a burial ground, which is enclosed by stone and earth banks. The burial ground continued to be used occasionally until 1870 to bury the bodies of shipwrecked sailors and by the small Catholic community in the south of the Isle of Man.

Derby Fort is named after James Stanley, the 7th Earl of Derby. He made alterations to a fort, which had been built on the island in 1540 as part of Henry VIII's network of coastal defences. The fort was refurbished by the Earl of Derby in the 1640s, at the time of the English Civil War. He was a staunch Royalist and used the fort to protect the nearby Castle Rushen and the anchorage of Derby Haven against the ships of Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians. In the 18th and/or 19th centuries the fort functioned as a lighthouse - a small turret was built within the fort and a light was lit on it during the herring season.

St Michael's Island is low lying and when I visited in early July 2019 there were lots of wild flowers, many of which were in bloom: sea mayweed, sea campion, thrift, tormentil, yarrow, bedstraw, sea beet, silverweed, melilot, white clover, hawkweed, charlock (also known as wild mustard) nettles and thistles. There were also lots of painted lady and meadow brown butterflies and several rabbit warrens, although I didn't see any rabbits. The island, which is just over 5 hectares in area, is criss-crossed with paths.

It is a good place to view the planes taking off and landing at Ronaldsway Airport, which is located less than a mile to the north west of the island.

St Michael's Island - looking south west towards the causeway

St Michael's Chapel

Looking north towards Derby Fort

Looking west towards Derbyhaven

Looking south towards the derelict hotel

St Michael's Chapel

Derby Fort

Cannon at Derby Fort

Entrance to Derby Fort

North side of St Michael's Chapel

St Michael's Chapel

Derby Fort

Charlock or wild mustard growing on the pebble beach

Looking north along the causeway towards St Michael's Island

Thursday 8 August 2019

Island 466 - Calf of Man, Isle of Man

The Calf of Man lies half a mile off the south west coast of the Isle of Man and separated from it by a narrow stretch of water called Calf Sound. It is a mile from north to south and from east to west at its widest points. The highest point on the island is 128 metres above sea level. The Manx name for the island is Yn Cholloo.

The Calf of Man is now owned by the Manx Museum and National Trust and run as a nature reserve. There is a bird observatory on the island, which is situated roughly in the middle of the island and in the most sheltered location. The building was previously used as a farmhouse and was built by George Carey in 1878. The bird observatory opened in 1959 and became an accredited observatory in 1962. There is a hostel/bunkhouse located at the bird observatory, which can accommodate 8 visitors. The island is on the seasonal migration routes of many birds and various nets and traps are used to catch them for ringing and recording purposes.

The Calf of Man had many private owners over the centuries. The last one - Mr F.J. Dickens of Silverdale in Lancashire - gave it to the National Trust in 1937. When the Manx Museum and National Trust was formed in 1951, they leased the island. They gained full ownership in 1986.

Two companies run day trips to the island: Shona Boat Trips, which run from Raglan Pier at Port Erin and , Port St Mary Boat Excursions, which strangely enough run from Port St Mary. I travelled with Shona Boat Trips and the crew on the boat were helpful and informative. The amount of time you get ashore varies, depending on the tides and the day I went we had 3 hours. This was enough time to walk along the footpath up the east coast of the island to Grant's Harbour at the north end of the island overlooking Calf Sound and then back down the track via the Bird Observatory to the 3 lighthouses before returning to South Harbour.

The Calf of Man has no fewer than 4 lighthouses associated with it. The first two were built by Robert Stevenson in 1818 to warn mariners of the dangers of Chicken Rock, which lies just under a mile south west of Caigher Point on the south coast of the Calf of Man. At this time the technology was not available for a lighthouse to be built on Chicken Rock itself. The lighthouses worked as a pair: when ships' crews saw the two lights converge, they knew they were close to the Chicken Rock and should alter their course. However they often obscured by fog.

By 1875, using techniques developed while building other rock lighthouses e.g. Bell Rock, a lighthouse was built on Chicken Rock itself by David and Thomas Stevenson. In December 1960 the Chicken Rock Lighthouse was badly damaged by a fire. It was automated in 1961.
In 1968 the Northern Lighthouse Board built another lighthouse on the Calf of Man between the 1818 lighthouses. This was automated in 1995 and decommissioned in 2007 when the Chicken Rock Lighthouse was upgraded and restored.

When I visited the Calf of Man in early July 2019, there were lots of dark green fritillary butterflies around. We saw several seals on the boat journey to the island. I saw and heard several choughs. There is an ongoing project to eradicate brown rats (known as long tails on the Isle of Man as there is a superstition that says you shouldn't say the word "rat".) with the aim of helping the Manx shearwater population to recover. Very few puffins breed on the island at present. In order to encourage them to choose the Calf of Man as a breeding place, model puffins have been placed on the cliffs and we saw some from the boat. However the puffins have not been taken in by these decoys! The island is grazed by Manx loaghtan sheep.

The small island in between the Calf of Man and the Isle of Man is called Kitterland. On 29th December 1852 the brig Lily ran aground on Kitterland and 5 of the people onboard were drowned. She was carrying a cargo of gunpowder and a few days later during the salvage operation it exploded and 29 people were killed.

In Calf Sound between Kitterland and the north coast of the Calf of Man is a rock called Thousla. In April 1858 the French schooner Jeane/Jeune St Charles was en route from Pontrieux in Brittany to Londonderry when she was damaged in a storm and ran aground on Thousla. The six crew abandoned ship but their lifeboat capsized and they were left clinging to the rock. The two ships boys were drowned but the remaining four men were eventually rescued several hours later by 5 boatmen from Port St Mary. The 5 boatmen involved in the successful rescue were awarded the silver Medal of Honour by the French government.

In 1859 the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses built a beacon on Thousla to warn shipping. A memorial to the two boys who were drowned, in the shape of the Iron Cross of Lorraine was erected on top of the beacon. The beacon and cross were swept away in a storm in 1905. In 1907 a concrete beacon was built on Thousla and a wooden cross was placed on top of it. In 1980 the wooden cross was removed from Thousla and re-erected near the Sound Café on the Isle of Man. It is still there.