West Mouse (
Welsh: ''Maen y Bugail'') is an
islet
An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanen ...
lying off the north-west coast of
Anglesey
Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. Its maximum dimensions are , with an area of .
It is located in an area of notoriously strong
tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another.
Tide tables ...
s. Because of this, at least three
shipwrecks lie near it, making it a popular
diving
Diving most often refers to:
* Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water
* Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes
Diving or Dive may also refer to:
Sports
* Dive (American football), a ...
location. There is now a white beacon on the island which is used as a navigational aid if lined up with two other beacons, one on the Anglesey mainland and another on Coal Rock, an islet a mile and a half north. The area also host to species such as
hornwrack,
sea squirt
Ascidiacea, commonly known as the ascidians, tunicates (in part), and sea squirts (in part), is a polyphyletic class in the subphylum Tunicata of sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders. Ascidians are characterized by a tough outer "tunic" m ...
s and
conger eel
''Conger'' ( ) is a genus of marine congrid eels. It includes some of the largest types of eels, ranging up to 2 m (6 ft) or more in length, in the case of the European conger. Large congers have often been observed by divers during ...
s. The island is part of a set of three spread out along the north coast of Anglesey. The other two islands are
Ynys Amlwch and
Ynys Badrig.
The Welsh name ''Maen y Bugail'' translates into English as ''The
Shepherd's Stone''. This comes from a
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
tale in which a shepherd who was looking for his sheep was annoyed by a stone in his shoe. He took the stone out and threw it into the
sea
The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...
, the island arising at the place in which it landed.
[Hughes, Margaret, Anglesey from the Sea, pg 85, Carreg Gwalch, 2001, ]
References
;Notes
External links
*
Islands of Anglesey
Cylch-y-Garn
{{Anglesey-geo-stub