Island 536 - Little Heathy, Bryher, Isles of Scilly

Little Heathy is located 100 metres to the north of Droppy Nose Point on the south west coast of Bryher.  It is a rocky and uninhabited tidal island.  Grass and thrift grow on the island and the rocks are covered in grey/green and gold lichens.  You need to scramble across rocks to access the island.

Hell Bay Hotel from Little Heathy

Rocky tor on Little Heathy

Bryher from Little Heathy

Looking out to sea from Little Heathy

Bryher from Little Heathy

Island 535 - Middle Colvel Rock, Bryher, Isles of Scilly

Middle Colvel Rock is located 50 metres to the south of Inner Colvel Rock off the south west coast of Bryher. Grass, thrift, sea beet and scurvy grass grow on the island.  The rocks are covered in gold and grey-green lichen.  It is necessary to scramble over rocks to reach Middle Colvel Rock from

Inner Colvel Rock from Middle Colvel Rock

Middle Colvel Rock

Thrift growing on Middle Colvel Rock

Thrift in flower on Middle Colvel Rock

Middle Colvel Rock from Inner Colvel Rock

Island 534 - Inner Colvel Rock, Bryher, Isles of Scilly

Inner Colvel Rock is a small rocky tidal island, located 100 metres off the south west coast of Bryher.  Grass, red escallonia bushes, scurvy grass, sea beet and thrift grow on the island. The rocks are covered in gold and grey-green lichens.  The first part of the crossing is across a sandy beach, but there are some rocks to scramble over closer to the island.

Inner Colvel Rock from Bryher

I think this rock looks a bit like a turtle

Sea beet on Inner Colvel Rock

Escallonia bushes on Inner Colvel Rock

Inner Colvel Rock from Middle Colvel Rock

Bryher from Inner Colvel Rock

Island 533 - Hangman Island, Bryher, Isles of Scilly

Hangman Island is an uninhabited rocky tidal island located 150 metres to the north east of Kitchen Porth on the east coast of Bryher.  The island's name may comes from a time in the past when mutinous sailors were hanged on it, possibly by Admiral Blake during the English Civil War.  Alternatively, the name may be derived from the Cornish an-men, meaning the rock.  The current gibbet on top of the island is modern.

Hangman Island can be accessed on foot at low tide from Bryher.  You have to cross a sandy beach and then about 50 metres of seaweed covered boulders, followed by a short scramble up the rocks onto the island.  The island is covered in grass, bracken, Escallonia rubra, scurvy grass and agapanthus.  The exposed rocks are covered in grey-green, black and gold lichens.

Hangman Island

Hangman Island

Looking south east towards New Grimsby on Tresco

Hangman Island

Island 532 - Ginamoney Carn, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly

Ginamoney Carn is a small rocky tidal island located 100 metres off the north west coast of St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly between Periglis and Porth Coose.  I visited it for the first time in 2014.  However, at that time I was unable to find a name for it, so I didn't count it.  The island is linked to the mainland by a man-made rocky causeway, which I assume was built to make Periglis Bay more sheltered.

Ginamoney Carn is covered in grass. Pittosporum crassifolium trees and Escallonia rubra shrubs are growing on parts of the island. Both are used extensively as hedging plants to act as windbreaks around the fields on all the inhabited Isles of Scilly.  Pittosporum crassifolium is a native of New Zealand, where it is also known as karo.  Escallonia rubra is native to Chile and Argentina. The rocks on the island are covered in several different kinds of lichens.

Someone has created some hammocks out of old fishing nets and strung them up between the trunks of the largest Pittosporum crassifolium trees.

Ginamoney Carn from St Agnes

St Agnes from Ginamoney Carn

Hammocks made from old fishing nets

Burnt Island and Tins Walbert from Ginamoney Carn

Island 221 - White Island, St Martins, Isles of Scilly

White Island (apparently it is pronounced wit, not white)is located about 200 metres off the north coast of St Martin's.  It is approximately 800 metres from north to south.  It is 400 metres wide at its nearest point but only 75 metres at its narrowest and has an area of around 165 hectares.   The highest point on the island is 31 metres above sea level.  There is a coast path around the island but on the west coast much of it has disappeared into the sea quite recently by the look of it.  The island can be accessed at least 2 hours either side of low tide across a beach of sand and boulders.   It is currently uninhabited.

White Island is an SSSI, which is managed by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust on behalf of the Duchy of Cornwall.  It is a breeding location for lesser black backed, herring and greater black backed gulls, kittiwakes and fulmars. When I visited in mid March there were lots of gulls on the maritime heath in the middle of the island.  They got a bit agitated by my presence, so I tried to keep to the coast as far as possible and didn't stay long.  

The island's thin soils and its exposed position have led to the development of wind pruned waved maritime heath, which is dominated by heather and gorse.  There are also areas of maritime grassland and lots of thrift.   The more sheltered areas, which have thicker soil, are covered in bracken and brambles and some honeysuckle.

The geo that almost cuts White Island in two is called Chad Girt.  It is of great interest to geologists, as it has an unusual sequence of late Pleistocene deposits.  These are a raised beach, granitic head (Porthloo Breccia), soliflucted material containing glacially derived clasts and loess (Hell Bay Gravel), head containing erratics (Brad and Cheese Breccia).

The remains of a kelp pit, which was used to burn the seaweed to produce soda ash from the 17th to the mid-19th centuries, is located on the west side of White Island.


North end of White Island



White Island Geo - Chad Girt
 - this nearly cuts the island in half

White Island from St Martin's 

North end of White Island
Lots of thrift plants, not in flower in mid March

White Island - Porth Morran
Centre of the island looking south west towards St Martin's across the waved maritime heath.

This is in the vicinity of the chambered cairn marked on the OS map, which I couldn't find.  It think these rocks may be the remains of an ancient field system.  There are several other ancient cairns on the island.

White Island's only tree

Looking towards Chapel Down on St Martin's from White Island

White Island from St Martin's 

Porth Morran looking north


Porth Morran looking south

Island 219 - Plumb Island, St Martins, Isles of Scilly

Plumb Island is a small tidal island located about 150 metres off St Martins and is accessible at low tide across a boulder field.  It has a small amount of vegetation on it - mainly thrift and it looked as if it had had more until the recent storms, there were areas of scoured out earth.  It isn't worth a visit unless you are an island collector of course.

Plumb Island is about 125 metres x 50 metres.

 St Martins and Tean from Plumb Island

Plumb Island 

Pernagie Isle from Plumb Island

Island 218 - Rat Island, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Rat Island has been joined to St Mary's by the harbour wall at Hugh Town since 1835-8.  When Augustus Smith became Lord Proprietor of the Isles of Scilly in 1834, one of his first building projects was to extend the quay on St Mary's out to Rat Island.  The first quay had been built by Francis Godolphin soon after 1601 and it was rebuilt in 1740 and 1748.  The quay was further extended by T.A. Dorrien-Smith in 1889 to cater for the expanding flower trade.

Rat Island is now home to a few companies e.g. the Rat Island Sailboat Co. and the Isles of Scilly Steamship Group's ticket office, toilets, exhibition area and waiting room.  There is also a small café but it was closed all the time I was there in mid March 2014 - like almost all the other cafes on the Isles of Scilly that week! The Scillonian III docks at the end of the quay and the smaller off-island boats moor up nearer the landward end. 

Scillonian III and St Martin's Boat Service boat moored at Rat Island, Hugh Town, St Mary's

Several businesses are based on Rat Island behind the Harbour Offices

 Rat Island - not terribly scenic!

 Rat Island at low tide

 Rat Island from the Garrison

Scillonian III at Rat Island Quay

Island 217 - Toll's Island, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Toll's Island is the largest tidal island off St Mary's.  It is 300 metres long by 175 metres wide and is located 100 metres east of the coast of St Mary's at Pelistry.  The highest point on the island is 16 metres above sea level.  Toll's Island is linked to St Mary's by a pale vanilla coloured sand tombolo, with a few rocks to climb over at the island end.  The island has distinct areas of bare rock; rough grass; heather; gorse; bracken/brambles; stunted and weather beaten trees + a few daffodils.  There are various paths but some of them were overgrown when I visited in March 2014.  There is a walled area where the trees are growing.

 

The remains of 4 kelp pits can be seen on the south side of the island but they are difficult to spot if you don't know what you are looking for.  Seaweed was burnt in these stone lined hollows to produce soda ash, which is rich in sodium carbonate.  This was used to make glass, soap and alum.  This went on in the Isles of Scilly from 1684 until 1835. 

 

The remains of Pellew's Redoubt proved rather elusive.  It dates from the English Civil War (1642-1651) and was a large gun battery built on the highest point on the island.  The island was strategically important as it is located at the entrance to Crow Sound and Pelistry is a sheltered landing place.  I could see a few rather small earthworks, which I presume were part of it.

Toll's Island from Pelistry, St Mary's

But is it art? 
I'm not sure why these fishing nets were festooning the trees on Toll's Island.  Some of them looked like they might be hammocks?

Toll's Island tombolo, Pelistry, St Mary's

Pelistry, St Mary's from Toll's Island

Pelistry from Toll's Island

Toll's Island from Pelistry

 

The rocky south eastern end of Toll's Island



Toll's Island and tombolo from Pelistry

Kelp pit on Toll's Island

Pelistry from Toll's Island, 2025