ESCAPE | OUTING

Islands of adventure FOR A REAL GET-AWAY-FROM- IT-ALL DAY OUT, HOP ON A BOAT AND SAIL TO A BRITISH ISLAND. TIMELESS, REMOTE AND TEEMING WITH WILDLIFE, THEY ARE THE PLACES FOR A CAREFREE ESCAPE

Words: CLARE GOGERTY

A day out at St Michael’s Mount (above left), or (right) will charge up your batteries

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Take a boat trip to the Faroe Islands (below and right) to spot grey seals and puffins. The on Lundy Island (far right)

Sail away he ferry journey to Brownsea Scottish islands Island in Dorset is exactly why Travel from the mainland to the I love to travel to British islands. Inner Hebrides or the Western Isles on Caldeonian MacBrayne Once I’ve scrambled into the boat Ferries (www.calmac.co.uk). and sat somewhere that NorthLink Ferries sail from minimises the chance of a Aberdeen and Scrabster to sea-sprayT soaking, I know that the adventure the Shetland Isles and Orkney has begun. The ostentatious football-manager (www.northlinkferries.co.uk). The Isles of Scilly houses of Sandbanks recede and the island Inner Farne and Staple Island in the summer The Isle of Scilly Steamship gradually comes into view – a glimpse at first (the trip takes about an hour) where you’ll see Company (www.islesofscilly- of a row of houses, a castle, woodland, a curl some of the 23 seabird species, including travel.co.uk) sails from Penzance of , then the quay itself. And that’s just puffins, who nest there. The islands are also to Hugh Town on St Mary’s. the start: once the boat has moored up, and famous for the heroism of who The Farne Isles I’ve clambered up the steps, the whole island helped her father rescue survivors from the Billy Shiel’s Farne Island Boat Tours (www.farne-islands.com) is there to explore, small enough to feel safe Forfashire in 1838, and Saint who are licensed by the National but large enough for a taste of the wild. lived in a stone and turf cell on Inner Farne, Trust to land on the Farnes. The journey to Brownsea, like many other watching and caring for the birds. Visitors are Bardsey Island British islands, is short but takes you far away. allowed to land on Inner Farne, Staple Island Bardsey Boat Trips day sail Islands are frozen in time, almost-forgotten and Longstone, but landing on all other around Bardsey and the tip of the Llŷn Peninsula lands that have escaped the ruination of islands is prohibited to protect the wildlife. (www.bardseyboattrips.com). modern life. And they are sanctuaries, for Lundy wildlife, for religious communities or just for ROMANCE AND Lundy’s own ship, the MS the careworn. With 6,289 islands to choose SEABIRDS Oldenburg, carries 267 from around the British coast, there are LUNDY ISLAND, North Devon passengers and sails daily in season (www.lundyisland.co.uk). plenty to explore, and many can be visited in Swathed in stories of pirates and smugglers Boat Trips to Lundy (www.boat a day. Here are a few favourites. and home to the fantastical puffin, Lundy tripstolundy.co.uk) organises exerts an irresistible, romantic pull. A private boats for you with SEABIRD CENTRAL two-hour boat trip from or skipper and crew. THE FARNE ISLANDS, Bideford will take you to the island, which Brownsea Island Boats sail from Sandbanks and lies 10 miles off the coast of North Devon. Poole to Brownsea half-hourly For centuries, these 20 or so volcanic outcrops This is the place to go for peace and quiet from March to September. (the number depends on the height of the (there are no cars), to walk and observe (www.brownseaisland ) have been a retreat for hermit monks, a nature (the island is 3 miles long and half a ferries.com) graveyard for drowned sailors, a refuge for mile wide, so quite manageable) and even to seabirds and a breeding ground for grey seals. stay (the Landmark Trust has 23 holiday A boat trip from will take you to properties there). The waters around Lundy »

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Five tidal islands The joy of tidal islands is that they can be reached on foot. Depending on what the tide is doing, that is: the sea has an alarming tendency to race in, stranding the unwary. A walk along a sandbar or causeway to your destination feels more adventurous than arriving by car and can take on a pilgrim- like quality, especially if headed for a sacred place like Holy Island.

l Mersea Island, Essex: most visitors head to West Mersea to sample the plump and delicious oysters at The Company Shed (www.thecompanyshed.co), crossing its causeway, The Strood, to do so. At high tide, the sea whips in, engulfing cars parked haphazardly along the shore. l Holy Island, Northumberland: cut off from the mainland for 11 out of 24 hours a day, a visit needs some planning but is well worth it – romantic Castle stands 30.5m above the sea and has fine views of the surrounding coastline. l Gugh, the Isles of Scilly: attached to St Agnes by a sandbar revealed at low tide, Gugh is a tiny, wild, remote place peppered with prehistoric sites including the Old Man of Gugh, a priapic standing stone. l St Ninian’s Isle, Shetland: named as one of the best places in the world to swim by Travel magazine, who presumably don’t mind a chilly dip, St Ninian’s tombolo is a sweep of sand that leads to an island famed for its discovery of 28 Pictish silver objects found by a schoolboy. l Lihou Island, Guernsey: accessed via a causeway revealed is St Mary’s – day trips sail from Penzance about it. So it’s surprising to learn it’s still (unless you arrive by boat), Northey is one “Islands are frozen in time, for two weeks a month, Lihou is while the Skybus flies from Land’sEnd. Hugh the home of James and Mary St Aubyn and of three tidal islands in the Blackwater pocketed with rockpools. From almost-forgotten lands that have Town is the heart of the archipelago with most family who live in the castle surrounded by Estuary. Unoccupied, except for the January to April, around the new of the hotels and restaurants and a supermarket. armour and antiques. They share the rocky holidaymakers staying in its one and only and full moons, people from escaped the ruination of modern life” The other big islands, St Agnes, St Martin’s, island with 30 others, including a head rental property and its caretaker, it is Guernsey come here to harvest ormer, a shellfish delicacy. Tresco and Bryher, are reached by a network of gardener who maintains the gardens that a wild and lonely spot. ferries. St Agnes is linked to Gugh by a sand burst with subtropical plants. The mount is The island is the ideal place to escape to are also a Marine Conservation Zone, and bar and both are studded with archaeological topped by a 15th-century church that gives it for a couple of hours and watch the many attract many different marine creatures such sites, including a stone labyrinth. St Martin’s its Gothic silhouette. It’s best reached by birds that are drawn here by the mudflats, as the and the spiny lobster. has sandy and a flower farm, Brhyer walking over the causeway at low tide, which are rich with invertebrates. Brent A word about is the setting for Michael Morpugo’s Why The though there is a boat. It’s worth bearing in geese flock here in their thousands during It’s easy when strolling over a causeway at low tide to forget A DROWNED LAND Whales Came, and Tresco is home to Abbey mind that it lies on one of Britain’s most the winter, as well as redshank, plover, that, before long, the path, and THE ISLES OF SCILLY Gardens, a subtropical paradise of rare plants. prominent ley lines, so may be enchanted godwit and avocet, who also make regular your only way back, will be completely swamped by the sea. Plenty of adventures- Historian Charles Thomas described a time after all. Open March to November. appearances on the island. So it’s important to check the in-a-day to be had on when the Isles of Scilly were part of the same ENCHANTED CASTLE Access is by advance permit only, visit tide timetable. These are usually the Scillies (above), landmass as Cornwall, before the sea rose and ST MICHAEL’S MOUNT, Cornwall www.nationaltrust.org.uk/northey-island/ A WILD AND available at local newsagents, or St Michael’s Mount engulfed most of it. The result was the ‘drowned Rising from the sea and reached only by a for details. No dogs are allowed on (opposite) and LONELY SPOT at www.tidetimes.org.uk and Northey Island landscape’ we now see: more than 100 islands, tidal causeway, St Michael’s Mount, when NORTHEY ISLAND, Essex the island because of the sensitivity of www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast_ (opposite below) 28 miles southwest of Land’s End. The largest enveloped by sea mist, has a magical look Reached only by a causeway at low tide the wild bird population. and_sea/tide_tables.

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Bardsey Island (below) was once a pilgrims’ destination. Brownsea Island (opposite) is the place to spot a red squirrel and to explore a safe wilderness

Tide tomes Miscellaneous books about British islands l Tiny Islands: 60 Remarkable Little Worlds Around Britain by Dixe Wills (AA Publishing, £11.99). An entertainingly written first- person account of trips to 60 carefully picked islands, including some in lakes, lochs and rivers. l No Boat Required: Exploring Tidal Islands by Peter Caton (Matador, £12.08). A one-man odyssey around the UK’s 43 tidal islands, all of which can be A QUIET WILDERNESS in the summer and a large flock of walked to from the mainland. BROWNSEA ISLAND, Dorset avocets in winter. l The Guernsey Literary and Reached by passenger ferry from Studland or Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (Bloomsbury, Poole, Brownsea Island, with its combination A PLACE OF £7.99). Life under German of beaches, woods, heathland, lagoons and PILGRIMAGE occupation in Guernsey during rare wildlife, is the perfect place for a day of BARDSEY ISLAND, North World War II, revealed through exploration and adventure. Which was why The pilgrims’ destination lies two miles a series of fictional letters. Robert Baden-Powell chose to hold the first off the tip of the Llŷn Peninsula across the l Five on Kirrin Island Again by Enid Blyton (Hodder & Scout camp here in 1907, with 22 boys whirlpools and strong currents of the Sound Stoughton, £5.99). Julian, Dick camping in the woods, practising scouting (Bardsey’s Welsh name is Ynys Enlli, ‘the and Anne (and Timmy the dog) skills in its safe wilderness. island of the tides’). Three pilgrimages to join George for their holidays on After a chequered history in which it was Bardsey were equivalent to one to Rome in her private island, thought to be occupied by a pottery magnate, smart society, terms of religious credit, so there was a lot of based on Brownsea in Dorset. the military and an elderly recluse, the island coming and going back in the day. Legend has was acquired by the National Trust and it 20,000 saints are buried here. opened to the public in 1963. Boat trips recreating the final leg of the Come here to enjoy its quiet attractions pilgrims’ journey sail from Porth Meudwy. and wildlife: the island has a large Allow 3½ hours to explore the island – and population of red squirrels, Sika deer have don’t take a dog, they’re not allowed. made their home here, too, and the lagoon Taken from The National Trust Book of the (managed by the Dorset Wildlife Trust) is Coast, from Lindisfarne to the Lizard by

filled with both Common and Sandwich Clare Gogerty (£30, National Trust Books). CORNISH/MATTHEW MILLAR/JOE IMAGES/JOHN TRUST NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: EATON MORGAN-OWEN/GRAHAM ANTROBUS/TUDOR

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