Island 465 - Conister Rock or St Mary's Isle, Isle of Man

Conister Rock or St Mary's Isle is located at the southern end of Douglas Bay about 300 metres from the promenade.  It doesn't really qualify as an island, as the rocks are completely covered at high spring tides, but I am including it because it has a building on it, which is known as the Tower of Refuge.  Conister Rock was a notorious hazard to shipping before and even after the Tower of Refuge was built on it.  The name Conister is a corruption of the Manx Kione y sker, meaning "end or head of the reef".

Sir William Hillary moved to the Isle of Man in 1808 and made his home at Fort Anne overlooking Douglas Bay.  In 1824 he founded the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (it was initially called the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck).  The first lifeboat to be built was stationed at Douglas. 

On 19th November 1830 the packet steamer St George arrived in Douglas, having sailed from Liverpool with passengers and mail.  Having unloaded her passengers and the mail she anchored close to Conister Rock for the night.   There was a storm during the night and the St George hit the rock and filled with water.  Her captain - Lieutenant John Tudor sent out distress signals.  The event was witnessed by Sir William Hillary from his home at Fort Anne.  He immediately went down to  the pier and with Lieutenant Robinson, William Corlett, Isaac Vondy and a crew of 14 volunteers he set out in a lifeboat to rescue the crew of the St George.  The lifeboat was damaged during the rescue attempt and at one point 4 of the men in it were swept overboard.  They managed to get back into the lifeboat and after another two hours the 22 crew members of the St George managed to get into the lifeboat.  Then the lifeboat was washed on to the rock and swamped.  All 40 men were eventually rescued by 2 more boats that has put out from the pier.

The Tower of Refuge was built by Sir William Hillary in 1832, as a warning to ships of the rock's presence at high tide and to act as a place of refuge in the event of there being another shipwreck here.  The Tower of Refuge was designed to look like a medieval castle, with castellations and corbels. by local architect John Welch.  The cost of the tower was £254, a proportion of which was given by Sir William Hillary, the rest coming from the harbour commission and private individuals.

Even after the construction of the Tower of Refuge, ships continued to run aground on Conister Rock: in 1867 the schooner Thomas Parker was driven onto the rock during a storm and in 1830 the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company's ship RMS Mona ran aground on it.

  

I arrived in Douglas at 6am on the overnight ferry from Heysham.  The sun was shining and there was a low spring tide at 07:19am.  Most of the websites that I had found in advance of my visit implied that it is only possible to walk out to Conister Rock a couple of times a year when the spring tides are exceptionally low.  Low tide on the day I visited was 0.5 metres, which wasn't the lowest it could be but my walk out was largely clear of water (there were a couple of ankle deep channels of water to walk through). The main problem was the very slippery seaweed, particularly the kelp.  At the times of the year with the lowest spring tides charity walks out to the Tower of Refuge are sometimes organised and hundreds of people take part but I had the rock and the tower to myself.

The tower has an open archway on its west side.  Inside the archway is a stone staircase which leads up to the upper level.  At the time of my visit the upper level was covered in scaffolding poles.   It is not possible to climb up the central tower.

Tower of Refuge

Silhouette of the Tower of Refuge

Approaching the Tower of Refuge across the seaweed

On top of the Tower of Refuge

Douglas Promenade from the Tower of Refuge

Cruise ship in Douglas Bay from the Tower of Refuge

No entry to the central tower

Plaque commemorating Sir William Hillary on the Tower of Refuge

Entrance

Tower of Refuge and cruise ship in Douglas Bay

Tower of Refuge in the early morning sunshine

Island 464 - Old Law, Northumberland

Old Law is an uninhabited tidal island located to the north of Ross Back Sands on the east coast of Northumberland.  It is separated from Ross Back dunes by a gap of about 300 metres on the sea side at Ross Point but only about 50 metres on the landward western side.  The landward side is a salt marsh, while the seaward side of the gap is sandy.  The gap is called Wide Open, which is an appropriate name for a gap! The island itself is really just a very large sand dune, which is now covered in marram and other grasses.  The island is just under a mile long by about 400 metres wide at its widest points.

It seems that Old Law only became an island at some point between 1769 (Armstrong's map) and 1820 (Fryer's map). 

Ross Back Sands are only accessible on foot.  There is an informal parking area for a dozen or so cars at the end of the public road at Ross (grid reference).  There are no road signs to the beach.  When I arrived at about 8.45 on a weekday morning there were only a couple of cars there but by the time I left 2 hours later the parking area was full.  It is a flat walk of just over a mile from the parking area north east along the only public footpath, which first passes some holiday cottages, then crosses a field (full of placid cows when I visited) before entering an area of rough grazing, which soon becomes sand dunes.  Once you get to the beach, you then have to turn north west and walk up the beach for 2km in order to reach the crossing point to Old Law.  The day I visited was a particularly low tide and I don't know how long the island is cut off for on an average tide.  It was a bit of a trudge along the beach, as the sand is a bit soft in places.

A 25" to a mile scale Ordnance Survey map from 1898 shows a lifeboat house and well located in the middle of the island but towards the southern end.  These were marked as disused on a 1922 map and they are not shown at all on modern OS maps.

There are two prominent tall navigation beacons at Guile Point on the northern end of Old Law, one on the foreshore and one in the dunes.   They look a bit like industrial chimneys.  I only explored the southern tip of the island, although I had seen the daymarks from Holy Island a couple of days previously.

Map showing the location of Old Law

 

Looking north towards Old Law

 

Looking south east over Ross Back Sands towards the Farne Islands

 

Ross Point from Old Law

 

Old lobster pot on the south coast of Old Law

 

Looking south from Old Law across Wide Open towards Ross Back Sands

 

Pirri-pirri bur

This is an invasive non-native species from New Zealand

 

Salt marsh separating Old Law from Ross Point

 

No public access beyond this point

 

 

Looking south east from Old Law towards the Farne Islands

 

Marram grass on Old Law

 

Looking north up the east coast

 

Looking south east over Ross Back Sands towards the Farne Islands

 

Improvised seat on the east coast of Old Law

 

Lindisfarne Castle from Old Law

 

Looking north up the east coast of Old Law towards Lindisfarne Castle

 

Navigation beacons at Guile Point from Holy Island

Island 463 - St Cuthbert's Isle, Lindisfarne, Northumberland

St Cuthbert's Isle is a small uninhabited tidal island located 200 metres off the south west coast of Lindisfarne or Holy Island in Northumberland.  The remains of a small stone rectangular medieval chapel can clearly be seen on the island.  The present chapel dates from the 13th century.  The site was partially excavated by Sir William Crossman in 1888. 

A large wooden cross has been erected at the eastern end of the chapel. 

A chapel dedicated to St Cuthbert (c635-687) is mentioned by Bede (AD 673-735) and is thought to refer to this island. The island was used by Cuthbert and his successor Eadberht as a retreat. 

Cuthbert became a monk in 651 after seeing a vision on the night that St Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne died.  He initially joined the monastery at Melrose and moved to Lindisfarne sometime in the early 670s where he became prior.  He moved to Inner Farne in 676 where he lived until he agreed to become Bishop of Lindisfarne in 685.  He died on Inner Farne in 687 and was buried in St Peter's Church on Lindisfarne.  Eleven years later his grave was open and his body was found to be undecayed. His body was placed in a wooden coffin in the sanctuary of the church.  Numerous miracles were subsequently attributed to him.  Following a Viking raid in 793 the monks left Lindisfarne, taking Cuthbert's body with them.  His remains were first taken to Norham on the River Tweed and then various other locations over the next couple of centuries before they were finally buried in what eventually became Durham Cathedral in 995.

I visited St Cuthbert's Isle at low tide on one of the lowest spring tides of the year in September 2018.  I tried to cross to it on a low neap tide several years ago but the rocky causeway did not clear on that occasion.  Thrift, sea mayweed, ragwort and bird's foot trefoil
were all growing on the island.  I paid the island another visit at low tide in June 2024.

St Cuthbert's Isle, June 2024

St Cuthbert's Isle, June 2024

Cross and chapel ruins looking west, 2018

Looking east over the chapel ruins towards Holy Island

St Cuthbert's Isle, 2018

Looking south east from St Cuthbert's Isle towards Guile Point, September 2018

Cross looking towards The Heugh, 2018

St Cuthbert's Isle from Holy Island

St Cuthbert's Isle from The Heugh, 2018

 

St Cuthbert's Isle from Holy Island

 

St Cuthbert's Isle on a sunny day in June 2024

Island 462 - Pace Hill, Seahouses, Northumberland

Pace Hill is a tiny tidal island located immediately to the east of Seahouses Harbour.  It is accessible at low tide by a short walk across the rocks.  The island has a very small amount of grass growing on it and also a small building, which is an old powder house.  This was built to store gunpowder, used in blasting, when the Long Pier and New Harbour were being constructed at Seahouses in 1886.  Pace Hill was chosen for safety purposes as the location for the powder house, as it is well away from any other buildings.

The powder house is built of sandstone.  It has a rectangular base, straight walls and a barrel vaulted roof.  It is a grade 2 listed building and it was repaired in 2012.  The repairs were carried out by Beadnell based Len Smith Builders for the North Sunderland Harbour Commissioners and half the costs were paid by Northumberland County Council.  The entrance is secured by a locked gate, which was donated in memory of Thelma Archbold (Seahouses born and bred), who died in 2014.

Pace Hill cut off an hour after high tide

 

Map showing the location of Pace Hill

 

Pace Hill at low tide

 

Approaching the Powder House

 

Powder House

 

Plaque on the Powder House gate

 

Looking west from Pace Hill towards Seahouses

 

Looking towards the Farne Islands from Pace Hill

 

Back of the Powder House

 

Powder House

 

Graffiti on the rocks

 

Looking south east down the breakwater towards Pace Hill