Island 208 - Northey, Essex

Northey is small tidal island located a mile to the south east of the town of Maldon in Essex.  It is situated in the estuary of the River Blackwater and its highest point is only 4 metres above sea level.. Northey isn't Britain's most scenic island but it has a remote wilderness feel to it and it is very important for wildlife.  I spent an enjoyable and peaceful hour walking round it by myself.

Northey is owned by the National Trust and you have to get permission to visit.  However this is very easy - all you need to do is telephone the resident warden, who will check the tide times for you.  The island is not accessible for about 2 hours either side of high tide.  She also gave me the combination number for the padlock on the gate at South House Farm, which enabled me to drive as far as the small car park just before the causeway.  You are not allowed to drive on to the island unless you have rented Northey House as holiday accommodation.  There is also a contact email address but if my experience is anything to go by I wouldn't bother trying to email them, as I am still waiting for a reply 2 months later!  I was asked to call in at the warden's house, as there is an admission charge if you are not a National Trust member and she also sells a useful and informative laminated leaflet/map for a very small fee, which is worth purchasing if you want to get the most out of your visit.

The island is not signposted off the road, so you will need a map of some sort.  Alternatively you could park in Maldon and walk down the sea wall until you see the causeway, which is obvious, as it is raised above the level of the surrounding oozy mud and has a post with a yellow triangle marking it.  I don't know how deep the mud is on either side of the causeway but knowing how deep marine mud can be I wouldn't recommend trying to access the island at low tide by any other route.

The total area of Northey Island is around 300 acres.  However since 1897 when part of the sea wall was breached, only 80 acres are always above sea level.  The rest of the island quickly reverted to salt marsh.  Northey is an important high tide refuge for wildfowl and waders, as it is the highest salt marsh in the Blackwater Estuary.  Many species of birds overwinter in the Blackwater Estuary, including brent geese.    The mudflats and saltmarsh are also used by large numbers of grey plovers, shelducks, dunlins, avocets, greenshanks, golden and grey plovers and black tailed godwits.  The dry part of the island is mainly used for grazing cattle.   Northey is part of the Blackwater Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest.

There is a metalled lane running up the west coast as far as Northey House.  The lane is lined by hedgerows of ash, oak, pine, hawthorn, crab apple, dog rose, lilac, privet, elder and horse chestnut.  It is possible to walk around the perimeter of the rest of the dry part of the island on a path that runs on top of the sea wall.

It is thought that the causeway to Northey was first constructed by the Romans.  The Battle of Maldon was fought somewhere to the south of the causeway in 991 AD.  A Danish raiding party landed on Northey.  Byrhtnoth, Earl of Essex raised an army.  The Vikings offered to go away if they were paid to do so.  Byrhtnoth refused to pay them but allowed them to cross the causeway to fight on equal terms, a critical mistake, as this meant that he lost his advantage.   Byrhtnoth and most of his army were killed and the English had to spend the next 70 years paying the Danes and later the Swedes as well to go away.   The island was inhabited at the time of the Domesday Book when it was known as Carseia.

In 1923 Northey Island was bought by Sir Norman Angell.  He was a writer and politician and he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1933.  He built Northey House next to an earlier farmhouse and constructed turreted walls around the garden.  The farmhouse was destroyed by a bomb during the Second World War.  Sir Norman owned the island until 1967.  In 1978 it was given to the National Trust by Mr & Mrs E.A. Lane.

A new area of saltmarsh was created in the south east corner of the island in 1992 because the process of coastal squeeze was causing the salt marsh at this point to disappear.  Coastal squeeze happens when a salt marsh, which would naturally move inland is no longer able to do so because of the presence of a man made sea wall or other barrier and therefore is eroded away.  Samphire, thrift, sea lavender and sea asters grow on the salt marsh.

 Looking towards Northey

Northey from mid Causeway

Looking west towards Heybridge Basin
There is a bird hide nearby.

National Trust sign

 

Thames Barge

 

Hulk of a Thames barge on the saltmarsh to the west of Northey House.

Northey House

 The house is rented as holiday accommodation. I didn't like to get to close, so the photo of it isn't great.

Northey House

Looking east from the south east of the island towards Southey Creek

Causeway from Northey

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 206 - Holm of Sound, Shetland

Holm of Sound is a very small grass covered island linked to Shetland Mainland just south of Sound, which is a suburb of Lerwick, at low tide by a sandy beach.  It has just about enough grass to keep a sheep happy for a while.  The geology of the island is interesting.  It is composed of conglomerate.  I visited on a misty morning.  I confess I was unaware of its existence and only visited the beach because there was a geocache there.  Happily it turned out to be low tide, so the island was accessible.

 Holm of Sound

 Conglomerate - 

it was a very misty morning, so it isn't very clear

 Holm of Sound 

looking south down the Voe of Sound

Holm of Sound looking south east

 Conglomerate at Holm of Sound

Island 205 - Pund, Lunnasting, Shetland

Pund is an unremarkable small grass covered island linked to Lunna on Shetland Mainland at low tide by a gravelly seaweed strewn causeway.  It has more than enough grass to graze a few sheep but apart from a few oystercatchers I didn't see any other wildlife, although I expect that otters are in the area.  It is definitely cut off at high tide, as we visited on our way to see the historic Lunna Kirk on our way home from a day trip to Out Skerries and the causeway was under water.  I came back a few days later on a sunny evening, having made a diversion on my way home from Papa Stour to Lerwick, as the low tide time was just right.

The island is about 200 metres from north to south by 150 metres from east to west and the highest point is less than 20 metres above sea level.   The tidal causeway is about 100 metres long.

 The tidal causeway from Lunna, looking towards Pund

 View looking north from the north end of Pund

 Looking south towards Mainland from Pund

Island 204 - Papa Stour, Shetland

Papa Stour is Shetland's best kept secret.  I asked lots of people I met on Shetland, both visitors and locals, but none of them had been to Papa Stour, even though it is served by a vehicle ferry 5 days a week.  Even one of the crewmen on the ferry said he had never walked round the island.  They have all missed a treat, especially lovers of coastal geomorphology.  I thought my geography textbook diagrams had come to life.  It has so many stacks, arches, blowholes, skerries, sea caves, geos and stumps in such close proximity.  The day I visited was relatively still and very sunny, which enhanced my enjoyment.

Papa Stour is currently experiencing a population crisis, as it now only has 8 permanent residents.  It did have c20 until some of them fell out over a dead dog and moved off the island in 2005.  This means that the ferry service must be hugely subsidised.  In the 19th century the population was 360.

The ferry departs from West Burrafirth on the west coast of Mainland and the journey time is 40 minutes.  The first round trip of the day is scheduled but the second is only available on request.  I had booked it in advance but became a bit paranoid about being left on a small island with only 8 residents for 2 days, as there wasn't a sailing the following day.  I checked with several members of the crew that they were doing a double run and there were a couple of other passengers anyway - 2 council workmen in a van and a man who was on a fishing trip.

There is no shop or pub on the island and although there used to be a hostel you could stay in, I think that has closed too, as the sign for it was laying on the ground.  However there is a lovely waiting room in sight of where the ferry docks, with chairs, tea and coffee making facilities and information about the island, which is more than there is on Out Skerries.  It is hard to see how the island could make money from tourism without a shop/café/hostel etc, as there is nothing to spend any money on apart from buying a postcard in the church or putting tea/coffee money in the honesty box in the waiting room.

The name Papa Stour means 'big island of priests' in Old Norse.  It was probably called that because of Celtic missionaries who lived on the island in the 6th or 7th centuries.  However the island has been settled since at least the Neolithic period.  The Vikings used the island as a base and safe haven.  By the 13th century it had become a Norwegian royal farm belonging to King Hakon.  The rest of Shetland was given to Scotland by the Norwegians in 1469 but they kept their estates on Papa Stour until the 16th century.   At Housa Voe there is a ring of 46 stones, which are thought to be the site of a Norse law Ting.

In the past 'lepers' were banished to the Hill O Fiellie/Felie in the south of the island to live in simple huts in isolation.  They relied on the islanders to bring them food.  However it is more likely that they were suffering from the effects of malnutrition or elephantiasis than leprosy.

Geologically most of Papa Stour is composed of pink rhyolite - a Devonian period volcanic rock.  This has been eroded by the sea to form the island of today.  All the indentations in the coastline mean that the island has 22 miles of coastline.  There are also ridges of glacial moraines running across the island.   It is not a particularly hilly island.  Virdi/Virda Field is the highest point at 87 metres.  The coast and sea around Papa Stour is a Marine Special Area of Conservation because of its rocky reefs and sea caves. 

A wall called the Hill Dyke separates fertile in-by land in the east of the island from the scalped or scattald health land to the north and west.  Over previous centuries turf and peat were removed from the north and west and either burnt or placed on the eastern side to improve the soil.  Today short vegetation grows on gravelly sub-soil.  This makes for very easy walking terrain.  The island is grazed by sheep.  In fact the sheep must outnumber the people by at least 20 to 1.

There have been many shipwrecks off Papa Stour and Ve Skerries out to the west.  The most recent ship to be wrecked on Ve Skerries was the Elinor Viking in 1977.  As a result of this shipwreck a lighthouse was built on them in 1979.  The island is popular with divers who come to investigate the shipwrecks and to look at the abundant marine life in the very clear waters.

The Hole of Bordie in the north west of the island is a 360 metre long sea cave, which is the fourth longest in the world.  The coastline is under constant attack from the sea.  An impressive sea stack called the Horn of Papa was swept away in a storm in 1953.



Lyra Skerry with Fogla Skerry behind, North West coast of Papa Stour.
The stack is apparently called Da Fit.

Snolda/Snalda Stack, NW coast of Papa Stour
The name means 'pinnacle' in Old Norse

Lyra Skerry off the NW coast of Papa Stour




Snolda Stack

Kirstan's/Christie's Hole -
an unusual double blowhole

 Kirstan's/Christie's Hole

Remains of watermills at Dutch Loch

These horizontal mills once had turf roofs.



Ruined farm, Hamna Voe

Planticrubs, centre of Papa Stour

 

Pier, Housa Voe



Maiden and other stacks, Housa Voe



Aesha Stack with a natural arch incorporated into it



Aesha Head, Fogla and Lyra Skerries from Papa Stour - NW coast

 

Papa Stour Airfield

Stained glass window in the Kirk
This was designed by Victor Noble Rainbird.  He was a painter and illustrator from Tyneside  and this is the only surviving stained glass window that he designed.

Brei Holm, east coast of Papa Stour
This island has a natural tunnel running right through it.

Maiden and other stacks, east coast

Muckle Fru or the Maiden Stack is supposedly the location where the only daughter of a Norwegian lord was imprisoned by her father because she refused to agree to an arranged marriage.  She had fallen in love with a fisherman and he rescued her with the help of this friends and they fled from the area.

Akers Geo

Looking towards Culla Voe
West Voe and Culla Voe in the east of the island provided sheltered locations for 19th century herring stations.

Natural Arch at Aesha/Aisha Head 

 Kirk -

A quiet place to rest and think 

 Partially reconstructed Stofa at Da Biggins

A stofa is a medieval Norse house.  Excavations at Da Biggins from 1977-82 revealed the site of one and in 2008 a stofa was partially reconstructed adjacent to the site by the Papa Stour History Group and the Norwegian Craft Academy using logs from Norway.

 Standing Stones

I'm not sure if these are ancient or modern.  They aren't marked on the OS map.

Ferry Waiting Room

 Snolda/Snalda Stack

Looking north towards Lyra Skerry with Flogla Skerry: on the west coast