Annet, Isles of Scilly
Encyclopedia
Annet is the second largest of the fifty or so uninhabited Isles of Scilly
, one km west of St Agnes with a length of one km and approximately 22 ha in area. The low lying island is almost divided in two by a narrow neck of land at West Porth which can, at times, be covered by waves. At the northern end of the island are the two granite carns of Annet Head and Carn Irish and three smaller carns known as the Haycocks. The rocky outcrops on the southern side of the island, such as South Carn, are smaller. Annet is a bird sanctuary and the main seabird breeding site in Scilly. The island is closed to the public from 15 April to 20 August every year to limit the disturbance to the breeding seabirds for which it has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest
(SSSI). It is also within part of the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
(AONB) and is managed by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust
. who lease it from the Duchy of Cornwall
.
.
In the 19th century Annet was ″used for pasturage by the inhabitants of other islands″ although with only one freshwater seepage there could not have been many animals grazing on the island.
The SS Castleford struck the Crebawethans
in June 1877 and led to some of her cargo of 250 to 450 cattle being landed on the island and staying there for up to ten days. Gurney (1889) reported that ″… the animals trampled everything and would have caused an immense amount of damage at the peak of the shearwater and storm petrel nesting season″. It seems unlikely that many stayed for ten days because of the need for fresh water. Cattle were washed up on the Cornish coast as far as Mount's Bay
and St Ives
. Another ship wrecked nearby, the Thomas W Lawson
spilled her cargo of oil on 14 December 1907 causing the loss of many birds. In 1971 Rex Cowan found the wreck of the VOC Hollandia. A large quantity of coins were found along with bronze cannons and mortars. The ship hit Gunner Rock on the 13 June 1743 with the loss of 276 lives.
deposits. The island is low-lying with a top height of 18 m and the coast consists of boulder storm beaches. The effects of wind exposure, salt spray and lack of topography, restricts diversity and only 53 species of vascular plants have been recorded. The north of the island is dominated by a well developed, thick, thrift (Armeria maritima
) turf whilst the southern part is dominated by dense stands of bracken (Pteridium aquilinum
), bramble (Rubus fruticosus) and bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), with some sand sedge (Carex arenaria
) and Yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus). Thickets of tree mallow (Lavatera arborea
) have developed at the back of some of the boulder beaches. There were scattered colonies of shore dock (Rumex rupestris) until a storm in 1982 swept away some of the boulder beaches. One colony remains in the corner of a relatively sheltered beach in the south of the island at a freshwater seepage. Annet is the ″British stronghold″ for the lichen Roccella fuciformis.
A description of the island by Hilda Quick, a former resident of St Agnes published in 1964 is still relevant today:
Numbers of breeding birds have fallen over the years and in the last 150 years some of the threats have been recorded. The stranding of cattle from the SS Castleford, in 1877, would have caused a problem with so many heavy animals grazing and walking over the shallow soils and burrows of breeding birds. Another wreck, the Thomas W Lawson on 14 December 1907, spilled her cargo of oil and many of the rabbits and birds on Annet ″were seen to lie upon the shore″. The smell of oil could still be smelt on nearby St Agnes eighteen months later. At the time of Jessie Mothersoles visit in 1910, visitors were only allowed one hour on the island and shooting and egg collecting were forbidden. Despite this, Annet figured highly on the list of places to visit for egg collecting. An examination of the egg collection at the Natural History Museum
(NHM) shows 45 eggs taken between 1880 and 1936 by 14 individuals and one group from Holloway College
; doubtless there are many more eggs in private collections. Names on the data cards include well known wildlife experts such as Charles Rothschild
and F W Frohawk
. An indication of how common and acceptable egg collecting was at the time, is the issue of day permits to visit uninhabited islands by the warden A A Dorrien-Smith of Tresco. A NHM data card for three eggs in the collection has a permit for landing on Annet on 24 May 1931 attached and allowed the Souter brothers to land on any island, except tern islands, for up to one hour.
Seabird 2000 survey
The most recent count of seabirds on the Isles of Scilly was the Seabird 2000 count and on Annet 209 nests were found to be occupied by Shag out of a total of 1109 for the islands. On Scilly, they breed almost exclusively beneath boulder beaches or holes in low cliffs. Manx Shearwater was estimated to occupy 123 burrows out of a total of 201 for the islands’ – a 74% decrease from a previous survey in 1974.
(previously English Nature) began a rat extermination programme in the 1990s with systematic baiting now being carried out by the Wildlife Trust. Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) have been eradicated from Annet and a feasibility study has found that rat eradication from St Agnes and Gugh would benefit Annet by removing the most likely source of invasion. Scilly shrew (Crocidura suaveolens) and rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) have been recorded.
A gull pellet found in 2002 contained the skull of a small mammal and when examined was found to be a water vole (Arvicola terrestris) which has never been found on the Isles of Scilly. Water vole is extinct at the nearest possible mainland source, Cornwall, and the original location of the skull is unknown.
Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...
, one km west of St Agnes with a length of one km and approximately 22 ha in area. The low lying island is almost divided in two by a narrow neck of land at West Porth which can, at times, be covered by waves. At the northern end of the island are the two granite carns of Annet Head and Carn Irish and three smaller carns known as the Haycocks. The rocky outcrops on the southern side of the island, such as South Carn, are smaller. Annet is a bird sanctuary and the main seabird breeding site in Scilly. The island is closed to the public from 15 April to 20 August every year to limit the disturbance to the breeding seabirds for which it has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
(SSSI). It is also within part of the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...
(AONB) and is managed by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust
Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust
The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall, England, UK.The trust works in conjunction with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, and jointly produces a thrice yearly magazine called Wild Cornwall & Wild Scilly.It is dedicated to ensuring...
. who lease it from the Duchy of Cornwall
Duchy of Cornwall
The Duchy of Cornwall is one of two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch inherits the duchy and title of Duke of Cornwall at the time of his birth, or of his parent's succession to the throne. If the monarch has no son, the...
.
History
Little has been found on Annet in the way of human remains apart from a prehistoric hut circle, a fragmentary field system and several limpet middens. Bones of cattle and sheep were found indicating that they were eaten here and probably grazed the island. It is proposed to designate the whole of Annet as a Scheduled Ancient MonumentScheduled Ancient Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorized change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term...
.
In the 19th century Annet was ″used for pasturage by the inhabitants of other islands″ although with only one freshwater seepage there could not have been many animals grazing on the island.
The SS Castleford struck the Crebawethans
Western Rocks, Isles of Scilly
Western Rocks is a group of uninhabited islands in the Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom.They are located south-west of St Mary's, with Annet and St Agnes immediately to their north-east and Bishop Rock to their west. The larger islands in this archipelago are, from north to south: Great Crebwethan,...
in June 1877 and led to some of her cargo of 250 to 450 cattle being landed on the island and staying there for up to ten days. Gurney (1889) reported that ″… the animals trampled everything and would have caused an immense amount of damage at the peak of the shearwater and storm petrel nesting season″. It seems unlikely that many stayed for ten days because of the need for fresh water. Cattle were washed up on the Cornish coast as far as Mount's Bay
Mount's Bay
Mount's Bay is a large, sweeping bay on the English Channel coast of Cornwall in the United Kingdom, stretching from the Lizard Point to Gwennap Head on the eastern side of the Land's End peninsula. Towards the middle of the bay is St Michael's Mount...
and St Ives
St Ives, Cornwall
St Ives is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent on fishing. The decline in fishing, however, caused a shift in commercial...
. Another ship wrecked nearby, the Thomas W Lawson
Thomas W. Lawson (ship)
The Thomas W. Lawson was a seven-masted, steel-hulled schooner originally planned for the Pacific trade, but then used primarily to haul coal and oil along the East Coast of the United States. Built in 1902, the ship holds the distinction of being the largest schooner and the largest pure sailing...
spilled her cargo of oil on 14 December 1907 causing the loss of many birds. In 1971 Rex Cowan found the wreck of the VOC Hollandia. A large quantity of coins were found along with bronze cannons and mortars. The ship hit Gunner Rock on the 13 June 1743 with the loss of 276 lives.
Natural History
The geology of Annet is of Hercynian granite overlain with raised beachRaised beach
A raised beach, marine terrace, or perched coastline is an emergent coastal landform. Raised beaches and marine terraces are beaches or wave-cut platforms raised above the shore line by a relative fall in the sea level ....
deposits. The island is low-lying with a top height of 18 m and the coast consists of boulder storm beaches. The effects of wind exposure, salt spray and lack of topography, restricts diversity and only 53 species of vascular plants have been recorded. The north of the island is dominated by a well developed, thick, thrift (Armeria maritima
Armeria maritima
Armeria maritima is the botanical name for a species of flowering plant.It is a popular garden flower, known by several common names, including thrift, sea thrift, and sea pink. The plant has been distributed worldwide as a garden and cut flower...
) turf whilst the southern part is dominated by dense stands of bracken (Pteridium aquilinum
Pteridium aquilinum
Pteridium aquilinum is a species of fern occurring in temperate and subtropical regions throughout much of the northern hemisphere....
), bramble (Rubus fruticosus) and bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), with some sand sedge (Carex arenaria
Carex arenaria
Carex arenaria, or Sand sedge, is a species of perennial sedge of the genus Carex which is commonly growing in dunes and other sandy habitats, as the Latin species epithet suggests. It growths by long stolons under the soil surface....
) and Yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus). Thickets of tree mallow (Lavatera arborea
Lavatera arborea
Lavatera arborea , the Tree Mallow, is a species of mallow native to the coasts of western Europe and the Mediterranean region, from the British Isles south to Algeria and Libya, and east to Greece.- Description :It is a shrubby annual, biennial or perennial plant growing to 0.5–2 m tall...
) have developed at the back of some of the boulder beaches. There were scattered colonies of shore dock (Rumex rupestris) until a storm in 1982 swept away some of the boulder beaches. One colony remains in the corner of a relatively sheltered beach in the south of the island at a freshwater seepage. Annet is the ″British stronghold″ for the lichen Roccella fuciformis.
A description of the island by Hilda Quick, a former resident of St Agnes published in 1964 is still relevant today:
″Many people are disappointed at being unable to visit the famous bird sanctuary, but in fact, there is very little to see there by day. There will be shearwater corpses lying about, (victims of the gulls) several large colonies of gulls, some oystercatchers, rock pipits, and wrens. The walking on the island is horrid, much of it over loose stones hidden in long grass, some bramble and bracken, and awkward great clumps of thrift. What Annet is famous for is its colonies of Manx shearwaters and storm petrels; but since they nest underground, and only come and go in the dark, there is nothing to be seen of them by day. One has to camp out for the night, which is often a chilly process, and requires special permission. The puffins that use to breed there in such numbers that their bodies were used for paying rent are now few, and can best be seen from a boat as they swim on the water″.
Fauna
Annet is considered to be of outstanding importance as a seabird colony. Twelve species nest here, of which two, Storm Petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) and Lesser Back-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) have nationally important breeding populations. The Storm Petrel breeds amongst the boulders of the more stable storm beaches. The largest population of Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) in the islands breed here and the other annual breeding species are Puffin (Fratercula arctica), Greater Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus), Razorbill (Alca torda), Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), Herring Gull (L. argentatus) and Shag (P. aristotelis). Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) breed on the island most years as do Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) and very rarely Arctic Tern (S. paradisaea).Breeding birds
Annet has long had a reputation for being the best island for breeding birds and Jessie Mothersole visiting in 1910 described the island thus:″Annet is known by the name of " Bird Island," from the immense numbers that breed there. In the early summer the sea all round is black with puffins and razor-bills, their white breasts being hardly noticeable as they sit on the surface of the water ; and the air above is dark with clouds of gulls, and full of their ceaseless cry. Puffins (also called sea-parrots) have bred on the islands from time immemorial″.
Numbers of breeding birds have fallen over the years and in the last 150 years some of the threats have been recorded. The stranding of cattle from the SS Castleford, in 1877, would have caused a problem with so many heavy animals grazing and walking over the shallow soils and burrows of breeding birds. Another wreck, the Thomas W Lawson on 14 December 1907, spilled her cargo of oil and many of the rabbits and birds on Annet ″were seen to lie upon the shore″. The smell of oil could still be smelt on nearby St Agnes eighteen months later. At the time of Jessie Mothersoles visit in 1910, visitors were only allowed one hour on the island and shooting and egg collecting were forbidden. Despite this, Annet figured highly on the list of places to visit for egg collecting. An examination of the egg collection at the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
(NHM) shows 45 eggs taken between 1880 and 1936 by 14 individuals and one group from Holloway College
Royal Holloway, University of London
Royal Holloway, University of London is a constituent college of the University of London. The college has three faculties, 18 academic departments, and about 8,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students from over 130 different countries...
; doubtless there are many more eggs in private collections. Names on the data cards include well known wildlife experts such as Charles Rothschild
Charles Rothschild
Nathaniel Charles Rothschild , known as "Charles", was an English banker and entomologist and a member of the Rothschild family.-Family:...
and F W Frohawk
Frederick William Frohawk
Frederick William Frohawk was an English zoological artist and lepidopterist.Frohawk was the author of Natural History of British Butterflies , The Complete Book of British Butterflies and Varieties of British Butterflies .Frohawk was born at Brisley Hall, East Dereham, Norfolk, the son of a...
. An indication of how common and acceptable egg collecting was at the time, is the issue of day permits to visit uninhabited islands by the warden A A Dorrien-Smith of Tresco. A NHM data card for three eggs in the collection has a permit for landing on Annet on 24 May 1931 attached and allowed the Souter brothers to land on any island, except tern islands, for up to one hour.
Seabird 2000 survey
The most recent count of seabirds on the Isles of Scilly was the Seabird 2000 count and on Annet 209 nests were found to be occupied by Shag out of a total of 1109 for the islands. On Scilly, they breed almost exclusively beneath boulder beaches or holes in low cliffs. Manx Shearwater was estimated to occupy 123 burrows out of a total of 201 for the islands’ – a 74% decrease from a previous survey in 1974.
Mammals
Natural EnglandNatural England
Natural England is the non-departmental public body of the UK government responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and soils, are protected and improved...
(previously English Nature) began a rat extermination programme in the 1990s with systematic baiting now being carried out by the Wildlife Trust. Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) have been eradicated from Annet and a feasibility study has found that rat eradication from St Agnes and Gugh would benefit Annet by removing the most likely source of invasion. Scilly shrew (Crocidura suaveolens) and rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) have been recorded.
A gull pellet found in 2002 contained the skull of a small mammal and when examined was found to be a water vole (Arvicola terrestris) which has never been found on the Isles of Scilly. Water vole is extinct at the nearest possible mainland source, Cornwall, and the original location of the skull is unknown.
External links
- The Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Beauty
- The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust
- Isles of Scilly Seabird Recovery Project: Frequently asked questions