Going back to last summer this was my birthday surprise from the fianceé - a trip to one of those funny islands in the middle of the Bristol Channel that you can see for miles around.
A long way out on a boat from w*les lives an island with lots of dereliction and a shit load of guls. 8'000 to be precise.. it's a good job there are no cars on this island. When they are looking after their young uns a hard hat is essential.
So an early start from Cardiff Bay ensued. The boat journey out is an event in itself, to say it was a bit choppy is an understatement but after an hour or so we'd make it there just a bit soggier than when we started.
A bit of history on the island courtesy of Wiki:
Flat Holm (Welsh: Ynys Echni) is a limestone island lying in the Bristol Channel approximately 6 km (4 mi) from Lavernock Point in the Vale of Glamorgan, but in the City and County of Cardiff. It includes the most southerly point of Wales.
The island has a long history of occupation, dating at least from Anglo-Saxon and Viking periods. Religious uses include visits by disciples of Saint Cadoc in the 6th century, and in 1835 it was the site of the foundation of the Bristol Channel Mission, which later became the Mission to Seafarers. A sanatorium for cholera patients was built in 1896 as the isolation hospital for the port of Cardiff. Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the first wireless signals over open sea from Flat Holm to Lavernock. Because of frequent shipwrecks a lighthouse was built on the island, which was replaced by a Trinity House lighthouse in 1737. Because of its strategic position on the approaches to Bristol and Cardiff a series of gun emplacements, known as Flat Holm Battery, were built in the 1860s as part of a line of defences, known as Palmerston Forts. On the outbreak of World War II, the island was rearmed.
What I really wanted to see on the island more than anything else was the fog horn station. I'm old enough to remember it's distinctive tone being heard from many a mile away.
The foghorn station on flat holm island was built in 1908 to accompany the lighthouse that originates back to 1737. The powerful compressed air signal was installed in one building while a cottage provider the keepers with extra accomodation. The foghorn was silenced for the final time in 1998 with the automation of the lighthouse.
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What else was there to see on the island? Too much for one day...
A long way out on a boat from w*les lives an island with lots of dereliction and a shit load of guls. 8'000 to be precise.. it's a good job there are no cars on this island. When they are looking after their young uns a hard hat is essential.
So an early start from Cardiff Bay ensued. The boat journey out is an event in itself, to say it was a bit choppy is an understatement but after an hour or so we'd make it there just a bit soggier than when we started.
A bit of history on the island courtesy of Wiki:
Flat Holm (Welsh: Ynys Echni) is a limestone island lying in the Bristol Channel approximately 6 km (4 mi) from Lavernock Point in the Vale of Glamorgan, but in the City and County of Cardiff. It includes the most southerly point of Wales.
The island has a long history of occupation, dating at least from Anglo-Saxon and Viking periods. Religious uses include visits by disciples of Saint Cadoc in the 6th century, and in 1835 it was the site of the foundation of the Bristol Channel Mission, which later became the Mission to Seafarers. A sanatorium for cholera patients was built in 1896 as the isolation hospital for the port of Cardiff. Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the first wireless signals over open sea from Flat Holm to Lavernock. Because of frequent shipwrecks a lighthouse was built on the island, which was replaced by a Trinity House lighthouse in 1737. Because of its strategic position on the approaches to Bristol and Cardiff a series of gun emplacements, known as Flat Holm Battery, were built in the 1860s as part of a line of defences, known as Palmerston Forts. On the outbreak of World War II, the island was rearmed.
What I really wanted to see on the island more than anything else was the fog horn station. I'm old enough to remember it's distinctive tone being heard from many a mile away.
The foghorn station on flat holm island was built in 1908 to accompany the lighthouse that originates back to 1737. The powerful compressed air signal was installed in one building while a cottage provider the keepers with extra accomodation. The foghorn was silenced for the final time in 1998 with the automation of the lighthouse.
What else was there to see on the island? Too much for one day...
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