Walking in the Isles of Scilly. Paddy Dillon
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Safety Matters
The Walks
Walk 1 Hugh Town Trail
Walk 2 The Garrison Wall
Walk 3 St Mary’s Coast
Walk 4 St Mary’s Nature Trails
Walk 5 The Gugh
Walk 6 St Agnes
Boat Trip 1 Annet and the Western Rocks
Walk 7 Samson
Walk 8 Bryher
Boat Trip 2 The Norrard Rocks
Walk 9 Tresco
Walk 10 Tresco Abbey Garden
Boat Trip 3 St Helen’s and Teän
Walk 11 St Martin’s
Boat Trip 4 The Eastern Isles
Appendix A Route summary table
Appendix B Useful contacts
INTRODUCTION
‘Somewhere among the note-books of Gideon I once found a list of diseases as yet unclassified by medical science, and among these there occurred the word Islomania, which was described as a rare but by no means unknown affliction of spirit. There are people, Gideon used to say, by way of explanation, who find islands somehow irresistible. The mere knowledge that they are on an island, a little world surrounded by the sea, fills them with an indescribable intoxication.’
Lawrence Durrell, Reflections on a Marine Venus
Of all the British Isles, the Isles of Scilly are the most blessed. Basking in sunshine, rising green and pleasant from the blue Atlantic Ocean, fringed by rugged cliffs and sandy beaches, these self-contained little worlds are a joy to explore. They are as close to a tropical paradise as it is possible to be in the British Isles, with more sunshine hours than anyone else enjoys. There are no tall mountains, but the rocks around the coast are as dramatic as you’ll find anywhere. There are no extensive moorlands, but you’ll forget that as you walk round the open heathery headlands. The islands may be small in extent, but the eye is deceived and readily imagines vast panoramas and awesome seascapes.Views to the sea take in jagged rocks that have ripped many a keel and wrecked many a ship. The islands are clothed in colourful flowers, both cultivated and wild, and attract a rich bird life, including native breeding species and seasonal migrants. And always, there is the sea.
The Isles of Scilly form the smallest of Britain’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and their historic shores have been designated as Heritage Coast. The surrounding sea is protected as a Marine Park of great biodiversity. Archaeological remains abound, not only on the islands, but also submerged beneath the sea. The Isles of Scilly are special, revealing their secrets and charms to those who walk the headlands, sail from island to island, and take the time to observe the sights, sounds and scents of the landscape. While the walks in this guidebook could be completed in as little as a week, a fortnight would allow a much more leisurely appreciation of the islands, and leave memories that will last for a lifetime.
Granite is the bedrock of the Isles of Scilly, seen at its best around Peninnis Head (Walk 3)
Location
The Isles of Scilly lie 45km (28 miles) west of Land’s End: a position that ensures they are omitted from most maps of Britain, or shown only as an inset. There are five inhabited islands and about fifty other areas that local people would call islands, as well as a hundred more rocks, and more again at low water. The islands are not part of Cornwall, perish the thought, but a self-administering unit; you could think of this as the smallest county in Britain (see www.scilly.gov.uk). The total landmass is a mere 16km2 (6¼ square miles). The waters around the Isles of Scilly, extending as far as the 50m (165ft) submarine contour, form a Marine Park of around 125km2 (50 square miles). Despite the small area of the islands, walkers can enjoy up to about 80km (50 miles) of truly remarkable routes around one of Britain’s most charming and intensely interesting landscapes.
Geology
The geology of the Isles of Scilly can be summed up in one word – granite. The islands are the south-western extremity of a deep-seated granite mass, or batholith, that reaches the surface of the earth around Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor and Land’s End. Granite is the bedrock of the Isles of Scilly, and it breaks down to form a stony, sandy or gritty soil, as well as bright white sandy beaches. In some places around the coast and occasionally inland, the granite forms blocky cliffs and tors, rounded boulders or tilted slabs that have such a rough texture that they provide excellent grip for walkers. In other places chemical weathering of less stable minerals within the granite causes the rock to crumble, or peel away in layers. As a building material, granite has been used for centuries, but only in relatively recent times has it been possible to split the rock into squared blocks more suitable for substantial buildings.
While the Isles of Scilly escaped the Ice Age that affected much of Britain, it didn’t escape the permafrost conditions that pertained south of the ice sheets, breaking up the granite tors and forming a stony, sandy soil. Nor did the islands fare too well as the ice began to melt and sea levels began to rise. It is thought that Scilly became separated from the rest of Britain around 10,000 years ago. It may well have been a single landmass for a while, but a combination of rising sea levels and coastal erosion produced the current pattern of five islands and a bewildering number of rocks and reefs. Before the arrival of the first settlers, it was no doubt a wild and wooded place.
Ancient History
Arthurian legend points to the Isles of Scilly as the last remnants of the lost land of Lyonesse; but while a submerged landscape does exist around the islands, it was never Lyonesse. In 1752 the Cornish antiquarian William Borlase discovered and recorded submerged field systems on the tidal flats near Samson. It seems that the first settlers were Neolithic, but a more comprehensive settlement of the islands came in the Bronze Age, up to 4000 years ago. Some splendid ritual standing stones and stoutly constructed burial chambers remain from this time, and excavations have revealed skeletons, cremated remains and a host of artefacts. When the Romans began their occupation of Britain 2000 years ago, criss-crossing the land with straight roads, settlement patterns on the Isles of Scilly were in huddled formations, as witnessed today on Halangy Down and Nornour. No doubt the Romans traded with the islands, as coins have been discovered, but it seems they established no lasting presence. In later centuries the Isles of Scilly attracted Christian hermits, leaving some of the islands blessed with the names of saints. That great seafaring race, the Vikings, also visited the islands. From time to time the Isles of Scilly have been a haven for pirates, their retreat every now and then smashed by the authorities of the day. In the 11th century over one hundred pirates were beheaded in a single day on Tresco!
The Inisidgen Upper Burial Chamber on the coast of St Mary’s is 4000 years old (Walk 3)
Later History
A Benedictine priory was founded on Tresco in the 12th century, and Henry I granted the island to Tavistock Abbey. By the 14th century the islands became part of the Duchy of Cornwall and Edward III gave them to the Black Prince, who was made the Duke of Cornwall. In the 16th century Governor Francis Godolphin was granted the lease of the islands by Elizabeth I. Godolphin built the eight-pointed Star Castle above the harbour on St Mary’s.