Barnard Point is a

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, John ...

which marks the south-east side of the entrance to

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarcat ...

on the south side of

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 195 ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. It is situated on

Rozhen Peninsula Rozhen Peninsula ( bg, полуостров Рожен, poluostrov Rozhen, ) extends 9 km in the southwest direction towards Barnard Point, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, and 8.8 km wide. It is bounded by ...

, north-north-west of

Botev Point Botev Point ( bg, нос Ботев, nos Botev, ) is the south extremity of both Rozhen Peninsula and Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica formed by an offshoot of Botev Peak in the Veleka Ridge of Tangra Mountains. The fe ...

and south-east of

Miers Bluff Miers Bluff is the point forming the southwest extremity of Hurd Peninsula, the southeast side of the entrance to South Bay and the northwest side of the entrance to False Bay, on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Th ...

(British mapping in 1968, and Bulgarian in 2005 and 2009).

History

The point was known to

sealers Sealer may refer either to a person or ship engaged in seal hunting, or to a sealant; associated terms include: Seal hunting * Sealer Hill, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica * Sealers' Oven, bread oven of mud and stone built by sealers around 180 ...

as early as 1822. The name was applied about a century later, probably after Mount Barnard (now

Mount Friesland Mount Friesland is a mountain rising to in the homonymous Friesland Ridge, the summit of Tangra Mountains and Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Its north rib is connected to Pliska Ridge by Nesebar Gap on the west, an ...

) which surmounts it to the north-east. Charles H. Barnard, captain of the ship ''Charity'' of New York, was a sealer in the South Shetlands in 1820–21.Stackpole, E. 1955
The American Sealers and the Discovery of the Continent of Antarctica: The voyage of the Huron and the Huntress.
Mystic, Connecticut. 86 pp.

Important Bird Area

The site has been identified as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because it supports a large breeding colony of chinstrap penguins (13,000 pairs), as well as about 30 pairs of

southern giant petrel The southern giant petrel (''Macronectes giganteus''), also known as the Antarctic giant petrel, giant fulmar, stinker, and stinkpot, is a large seabird of the southern oceans. Its distribution overlaps broadly with the similar northern giant pet ...

s. The 175 ha IBA comprises the ice-free area at the point, which rises to a height of over 250 m at its easternmost extent.

Maps

* L.L. Ivanov et al. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich Island, South Shetland Islands. Scale 1:100000 topographic map. Sofia: Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria, 2005. * L.L. Ivanov
Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands
Scale 1:120000 topographic map. Troyan: Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2009.

Notes

References

SCAR Composite Antarctic Gazetteer
* Headlands of Livingston Island Important Bird Areas of Antarctica Seabird colonies Penguin colonies {{LivingstonIsland-geo-stub