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.

Jackson's Bay
Named after Sir John Jackson, who constructed Barry Harbour

Shops opposite the Pleasure Park

 - don't expect any healthy food - it was all hotdogs, hamburgers, fish & chips, ice cream etc.

Seafront at Whitmore Bay

A game of cricket at the western end of the island

A quiet contrast to the crowds around the Pleasure Park

 

Welcome to Barry Island!
I thought at first it was a bathtub that the people were sitting in but I think that it is probably a boat!

The railway line runs alongside the road bridge
Looking north west

Island 170 - Sully, Glamorgan, South Wales

Sully Island is a low lying tidal island about 500 metres south of the hamlet of Swanbridge, which is itself located about a mile to the south east of the small town of Sully.  It is only accessible for a few hours either side of low tide and the tidal currents in this area are very strong, so a check of the tide times is essential before venturing across the rocky causeway.  The highest point on the island is only about 24 metres above sea level.  There was once a fort there but I could see no signs of it.

This is the tidal island with the most warning signs I have come across so far.  The first notice said the beach was dangerous because part of the sea wall has collapsed and there are lots of chunks of concrete, some with metal rods sticking out of them, strewn across it.   However it was easy enough to find a way round them.  The second notice says the causeway is a death trap, presumably because of the tidal currents, because when the tide is out the walk across the causeway is very easy -  there isn't much seaweed on it, the rock bedding planes are almost horizontal and apart from skirting round a few small rock pools there aren't any other hazards.  When you get to the island there is another notice saying you have risked your life to visit. 

On a sunny summer day Sully Island was a lovely place to spend a while wandering around.

 

 Warning at Swanbridge

Causeway from Swanbridge to Sully Island  

 
When you arrive on the island there is another notice saying you have risked your life to visit the island.

 

 Highest point on the island with Steep Holm in the distance
I'm not sure what the yellow flowers are - they looked like members of the buttercup family

 

 South Coast with Flat Holm and Steep Holm in the distance

 

 Swanbridge from Sully Island

There are several paths crisscrossing the island.  Some areas are covered with grass and bracken with wild flowers like bird's foot trefoil, cowslip and salad burnet.  The rest is covered by thick scrub e.g. elder bushes and brambles.  The low lying part in the middle is covered with tall reeds.  The north side of the island, which is only a few metres above sea level, is fringed by a pebble beach.  On the south side there are low cliffs fringed by platforms of stone and large flat boulders.

  Interesting geology on the south coast - looking towards Barry
Triassic mudstones and sandstone with older limestone beneath

South coast with Steep Holm and Flat Holm in the distance

Sully Island was put up for sale in 2009 for £1.25 million but didn't sell.  In 2011 the price was reduced to £95,000 and it was sold to a mystery buyer.