St Agnes ( kw, Agenys) is the southernmost populated island of the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of th ...

. Thus the island's Troy Town Farm is the southernmost settlement in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

Description

St Agnes joins the island of

Gugh Gugh (; kw, Keow, meaning "hedge banks") could be described as the sixth inhabited island of the Isles of Scilly, but is usually included with St Agnes with which it is joined by a sandy tombolo known as "The Bar" when exposed at low tide. The ...

by a

tombolo A tombolo is a sandy or shingle isthmus. A tombolo, from the Italian ', meaning 'pillow' or 'cushion', and sometimes translated incorrectly as ''ayre'' (an ayre is a shingle beach of any kind), is a deposition landform by which an island becom ...

, a kind of

sandbar In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. ...

, called the Gugh Bar, which is exposed only at low tide. The Gugh is inhabited, with some three residents. The two islands of St Agnes and Gugh together have a population of 85 residents recorded in the 2011 census (73 were recorded in the 2001 census) and a landmass of . Without the Gugh included, St Agnes is marginally smaller than Bryher in either population or area; however if Gugh is included with St Agnes, it is Bryher that is marginally smaller in area and population. In earlier times many men from St Agnes earned a living as pilots, guiding transatlantic liners and other vessels through the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" ( Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), ( Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Ka ...

. Now the mainstay of the economy is tourism, together with some

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs dur ...

farming. Accommodation is limited, and St Agnes is the only populated island in the

which has no hotel. However, it has a few B&Bs and self-catering cottages, an ice cream shop, a campsite, a small post office and general store and a gift shop. It also has a pub (the Turk's Head) and a cafe, although these are closed in the winter.

Settlements

The main population centre is in the north and middle of the island. The southern part of the island is covered by the heather

moorland Moorland or moor is a type of habitat found in upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and montane grasslands and shrublands biomes, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils. Moorland, nowadays, generall ...

of Wingletang Down. The settlements are Troy Town (far west), Lower Town (west), Middle Town (central) and Higher Town (east).

Lighthouse

The island's most notable landmark is its

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses m ...

, which has been converted into living accommodation as the tower no longer contains a light.

Other landmarks

Other landmarks include a

standing stone A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be fou ...

known as the Nag's Head (probably a natural formation). In 1707, many of the sailors who had drowned in the great naval disaster off the Isles of Scilly were reputedly buried on the St Agnes playing field. ; Troy Town maze The Troy Town Maze is said to have been laid out by the son of the lighthouse keeper in 1729, but may be much older. Although called a maze it is strictly a

labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by ...

with a convoluted path to the centre via seven rings. It is the only one outside Scandinavia made of beach pebbles, which may indicate it to be of Viking origin. References in the

Norse sagas is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, from the Super NES to t ...

tell of raiders coming to Scilly as late as the mid-12th century. Any buried evidence of its origins may have been destroyed during an unofficial rebuild in 1988.

Church

For the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

parish see

St Agnes' Church, St Agnes St Agnes' Church is a parish church in the Church of England located in St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, UK. History The Anglican church is dedicated to St Agnes of Rome. The first church was built in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, but it ...

. The Bible Christians maintained a congregation on the island for over 100 years and built the Bible Christian Chapel, St Agnes in the north of the island in 1874.

Population

Sporting and social life

Friday evenings in the summer (end of April until start of October) see men's domestic

Cornish Pilot Gig The Cornish pilot gig is a six-oared rowing boat, clinker-built of Cornish narrow-leaf elm, long with a beam of . It is recognised as one of the first shore-based lifeboats that went to vessels in distress, with recorded rescues going back ...

racing on Scilly, with the ladies' race on Wednesday. After the race, supporters fill the Turk's Head to discuss the race and to socialise. The pub is open through the summer, but during the winter it only opens on Wednesdays for a

Pub quiz A pub quiz is a quiz held in a pub or bar. These events are also called quiz nights, trivia nights, or bar trivia and may be held in other settings. Pub quizzes may attract customers to a pub who are not found there on other days. The pub quiz is ...

, and one other night. The pub is supplied from St Austell and stocks a range of beers and ales including Burton ales.

Notable residents

Periglis Cottage was the home of St Agnes's resident ornithologist Hilda M. Quick. She was the author of ''Birds of the Scilly Isles'' published in 1964.

Education

Five Islands Academy Five Islands Academy, formerly Five Islands School, is the first federated school in the United Kingdom, providing primary and secondary education for children from 3 to 16 at five sites in the Isles of Scilly. As of May 2022, the headteacher i ...

(previously Five Islands School) has its St Agnes Base, a primary campus. Secondary pupils board at the St Mary's main campus, staying there on weekdays and coming back and forth to their home islands on weekends. Students at the sixth-form college level reside and board elsewhere, in mainland Great Britain. Previously the

Learning and Skills Council The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was a non-departmental public body jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England. It closed on 31 Marc ...

paid for costs of accommodation for sixth-formers.

Natural history

Over one third of the area of St Agnes is designated as

Sites of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

(SSSI). In the south of the island Wingletang Down is noted for its heath, dune grassland and rocky coast and is the only site in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

where the

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes exce ...

least adder's–tongue (''Ophioglossum lusitanicum'') grows. Other rare plants include the

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of floweri ...

autumn lady's-tresses (''

Spiranthes spiralis ''Spiranthes spiralis'', commonly known as autumn lady's-tresses, is an orchid that grows in Europe and adjacent North Africa and Asia. It is a small grey-green plant. It forms a rosette of four to five pointed, sessile, ovate leaves about in le ...

'') and early meadow-grass ('' Poa infirma''). The only freshwater pools on St Agnes are Big Pool and Little Pool in the north-west of the island which are part of the Big Pool and Browarth Point SSSI. Big Pool shows evidence for inundation by the 1775 Lisbon tsunami that was caused by the

1755 Lisbon earthquake The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, impacted Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, and Northwest Africa on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time. In combination with ...

. The vegetation has some

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estua ...

influence because of occasional influx of the sea during winter storms with rushes such as saltmarsh rush (''

Juncus gerardi ''Juncus gerardii'', commonly known as blackgrass, black needle rush or saltmarsh rush, is a flowering plant in the rush family Juncaceae. Distribution ''Juncus gerardii'' is mainly a coastal species, occurring at the high tide mark on the Me ...

'') and sea club–rush ('' Scirpus maritimus''). The surrounding grassland, which is also a cricket pitch, is notable for the clovers amongst its flora including western clover (''

Trifolium occidentale ''Trifolium occidentale'', the western clover, is a clover plant belonging to the genus ''Trifolium'' in the legume family, Fabaceae. Its flowers are white, similar to white clover (''Trifolium repens''), with which it has long been confused. Th ...

''), suffocated clover ('' T. suffocatum'') and subterranean clover ('' T. subterraneum''). Other plants include adder's-tongue (''

Ophioglossum vulgatum ''Ophioglossum vulgatum'', commonly known as adder's-tongue, southern adders-tongue or adders-tongue fern, is a species of fern in the family ''Ophioglossaceae''. The adder’s tongue fern is generally believed to have the largest number of chr ...

'') and small adder's-tongue ('' O. azoricum'').

Vagrant birds

St Agnes is visited by

birdwatcher Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, by ...

s, particularly during the ″Scilly season″ of September and October. Among the many vagrant birds which have been found here around this time are the following, which were all ″firsts″ for Britain: * Northern waterthrush (''Parkesia noveboracensis'') found at Covean on 30 September 1958 and stayed there until 12 October 1958. *

Bobolink The bobolink (''Dolichonyx oryzivorus'') is a small New World blackbird and the only member of the genus ''Dolichonyx''. An old name for this species is the "rice bird", from its tendency to feed on cultivated grains during winter and migration. ...

(''Dolichonyx oryzivorus'') near Big Pool on 19 September 1962. *

Blackpoll warbler The blackpoll warbler (''Setophaga striata'') is a New World warbler. Breeding males are mostly black and white. They have a prominent black cap, white cheeks and white wing bars. The blackpoll breeds in forests of northern North America, from Ala ...

(''Setophaga striata'') discovered in the Parsonage garden on 12 October 1968 and remained on the island until 25 October 1968. * Europe's first

hooded warbler The hooded warbler (''Setophaga citrina'') is a New World warbler. It breeds in eastern North America and across the eastern United States and into southernmost Canada (Ontario). It is migratory, wintering in Central America and the West Indies ...

(''Wilsonia citrina'') at Big Pool from 21 September 1972 to 23 September. *

Semipalmated plover The semipalmated plover (''Charadrius semipalmatus'') is a small plover. ''Charadrius'' is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek ''kharadrios'' a bird found in ravines and ri ...

(''Charadrius semipalmatus'') first found at Porth Killier on 9 October 1978 and stayed around on Periglis until 9 November 1978. * Europe's first

magnolia warbler The magnolia warbler (''Setophaga magnolia'') is a member of the wood warbler family Parulidae. Etymology The genus name ''Setophaga'' is from Ancient Greek ''ses'', "moth", and ', "eating", and the specific ''magnolia'' refers to the type lo ...

(''Setophaga magnolia'') in Barnaby Lane on 27 and 28 September 1981. * Eastern Bonelli's warbler (''Phylloscopus orientalis'') in 1987. * Wood thrush (''Hylocichla mustelina'') at Wingletang Down on 7 October 1987. *

Short-toed eagle The short-toed snake eagle (''Circaetus gallicus''), also known as the short-toed eagle, is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as kites, buzzards and harriers. The genus ...

(''Circaetus gallicus'') in 1999. In addition: * a yellow-browed bunting (''Emberiza chrysophrys'') in 1994 was Britain's fourth. * a cream-coloured courser (''Cursorius cursor'') in 2004 was the first to be seen in Britain for 20 years. Among rare vagrants recorded at other times of year are the following: * Blue-cheeked bee-eater (''Merops superciliosus'') on 22 June 1951; a first for Britain. * Britain's fifth and Scilly's first Balearic woodchat shrike (''Lanius senator badius'') at Troy Town from 21 to 27 April 1999. (Accepted by the BBRC) * a little bustard (''Tetrax tetrax'') in March 2002. * a killdeer (''Charadrius vociferus'') in November 2003.

Civil parish and ward

St Agne's Isles of Scilly UK parish locator map

St Agnes is one of the five civil parishes of the Isles of Scilly, which are also wards. The civil parish and ward include Gugh and several uninhabited islands and rocks, including the Western Rocks, Annet, Rosevear, Pednathise Head (the southernmost land in the UK) and the

Bishop Rock The Bishop Rock ( kw, Men Epskop) is a skerry off the British coast in the northern Atlantic Ocean known for its lighthouse. It is in the westernmost part of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish penins ...

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

1:25,000 map St Agnes returns one councillor to the Council of the Isles of Scilly, the same as the other "off-island" wards. The civil parish is not functional, however, and there is no

council A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

meeting A meeting is when two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal or business setting, but meetings also occur in a variety of other environments. Meetings can be used as form of group decision making. Defini ...

Notes

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Agnes Inhabited islands of the Isles of Scilly Civil parishes in Cornwall