The Islands
The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago of five inhabited islands St.Mary’s, St.Agnes, Bryher, Tresco, St.Martins and numerous other small rocky islets (around 140 in total) lying 45 km (28 miles) off Land’s End.
The islands’ position produces a place of great contrast—the ameliorating effect of the sea means they rarely have frost or snow, which allows local farmers to grow flowers well ahead of those in mainland Britain. The chief agricultural product is cut flowers, mostly daffodils. Exposure to Atlantic winds means that spectacular winter gales lash the islands from time to time. This is reflected in the landscape, most clearly seen on Tresco where the lush sub-tropical Abbey Gardens on the sheltered southern end of the island contrast with the low heather and bare rock sculpted by the wind on the exposed northern end.
Scilly has been inhabited since the Stone Age and its history has been one of subsistence living until the early 20th century (people lived from what they could get from the land or the sea). Farming and fishing continue today, but the main industry now is tourism.
It is likely that until relatively recent times the Isles were much larger with many of them joined into one island, named Ennor. Rising sea levels flooded the central plain around 400–500 AD, forming the current islands
Scilly is famous for its danger to shipping and its many shipwrecks. The wreck of Sir Cloudesley Shovell’s ship HMS Association and three others of his fleet in 1707 off the Isles of Scilly due to inaccuracies in navigation led to the establishment of the Board of Longitude and consequently the development of the method of lunar distances, and to the invention of the marine chronometer by john Harrison, the first reliable methods of determining Longitude at sea
Because of its position, Scilly is the first landing for many migrant birds, including extreme rarities from North America and Siberia. Scilly is situated far into the Atlantic Ocean, so many American vagrant birds will make first European landfall in the archipelago.
In 1975, the islands were designated as an Area of Outstanding natural Beauty. The designation covers the entire archipelago, including the uninhabited islands and rocks, and is the smallest such area in the UK. The islands of Annet and Samson have large terneries and the islands are well populated by seals. The Isles of Scilly are the only British haunt of the Lesser White-toothed Shrew (Crocidura suaveolens).
(Adapted from the Wikipedia entry for ‘Isles of Scilly’ available here)
