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Note that all maps on this site are only
indicative. You should never set out without the correct OS map.
St Agnes – like all the Scillies – begs to be walked
around. It seems to say: "Right, you've done the difficult bit and
managed to get here – now you'd better see all I have to offer.”
Most visitors to Scilly will have experienced this allure - no
fewer than 97 per cent of all visitors to the archipelago quizzed
in a survey said that walking was the number one activity they enjoyed
during their stay.
There is one slight misconception however, and that is the mistaken
belief that the archipelago tends to shut up shop for winter. It
doesn't. Many hotels and guesthouses are open and the boats serving
the various off-islands still ply to and fro – though of course
they do so on a more limited basis than the summer programme allows.
And the really wonderful thing about visiting Scilly in winter
is that you more or less get the off-islands to yourself. When we
did the St Agnes walk in early March we more-or-less had the island
to ourselves.
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St Agnes is one of the four inhabited
off-islands in the Scillonian archipelago. It is the most south
west of these and is, geologically speaking, slightly divorced from
the other isles. Consequently it has its very own unique charm.
A walk around St Agnes is truly one of the very best treats the
Westcountry has to offer.
The island has its own dedicated boat service which operates all
year, conditions allowing. To find out more visit the
site or phone skipper John Peacock on 07771 550652 or 01720
422704.
If I were asked to name the very best Westcountry hike you could
do on a bright but chilly winter day, I'd say that a circumnavigation
of the fabulously beautiful Scillonian isle of St Agnes would be
hard to beat.
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| Arrival at St Agnes means disembarking at Porth
Conger. Sometimes you need to be quick getting on or off the boat
– skipper John Peacock was telling me that it can be a little
problematic in a big swell – but he won't let you attempt it
unless it's safe.
St Agnes has something that passes for a main road. It is a tiny
track just big enough to cater for the smaller kind of tractor (which
is just about the only sort of traffic you are likely to see) and
it climbs away from the quay, passing the excellent Turk's Head
pub as it goes. At the shoulder of the hill it heads inland to run
across the island's central ridge before coming to a halt at Troy
Town Farm in the west.
My advice is to leave this central track just above the Turk's
Head and follow the tiny coast path down towards the sandbar that
connects St Agnes with its sister island Gugh (pronounced Geuw to
sound like the name Hugh).
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| If time allows and you are feeling fit, then cross
the sandbar and take a turn around Gugh – you will be treated
to wonderful views of the main island of St Mary's and there are
all sorts of ancient remains. Kittern Hill rising in the north boasts
traces of prehistoric dwellings and tombs as well as remains of
ancient field walls.
Towards the centre of Gugh you will also find Obadiah's Barrow
(in which a skeleton and a dozen prehistoric urns were found in
1900) and the magnificent nine-foot Old Man of Gugh standing stone.
But do keep an eye on the tide – you would, quite frankly,
need to be a bit of an idiot to get cut off – but it has, locals
tell me, happened before.
At high tide the bar disappears and Porth Conger and the big bay
known as The Cove become the channel that separates Gugh at St Agnes.
It is down the St Agnes shore of this channel that the island's
little coast path ducks and weaves to take you all the way to Beady
Pool under Wingletang Down.
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| A 17th century merchant ship went down somewhere
off the cove and part of its cargo contained countless of brown
and black and white beads, which can occasionally still be found
upon the shore. I have spent several hours looking for these baubles
over the years but have yet to find a single one – part of
the problem being that the natural granite grit looks strangely
bead-like. However, I do know an island woman who has a necklace
made of them and I've heard that these beads were on their way to
Africa where they'd have been used to purchase slaves, but I've
never had this verified.
Magical Wingletang Down has a southerly appendage in the form of
a cape that stretches around from Beady Pool, past Grandfather Hugh's
Point, and Horse Point and a rock called The Beast. It's well worth
taking a turn around this, especially on a stormy day when you can
be awed by the crashing of the waves.
Now we walk north up the west coast of St Agnes. Just above Porth
Askin there are some big wind-etched rocks that really do look like
prehistoric beasts, then there's St Warna's Well, which is said
to be the place where the patron saint of shipwrecks landed from
Ireland in her wicker coracle. She couldn't have picked a better
place – there are many dozens of wrecks within a mile or two
of the spot.
Around St Warna's Cove and we found ourselves on the southerly
slopes of Castella Down. Keep an eye out for the weirdest shaped
rock of them all – the Nag's Head looms about 15 feet high
just inland of the path and looks something like a cross between
a horse and an angel.
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Just beyond this, threading our way between the
big stacks called Camper Dizzle Rocks – we come to the island's
famous Troy Town Maze. It would be nice to think this was put in
place by the same people who erected The Old Man of Gugh –
but the maze was actually arranged by a bored lighthouse keeper
in 1729. However, historians believe he may have copied a much earlier
maze that he found on the same site.
Now we wander up the coast past Carnew Point and the island campsite
(keep an eye open for the splendid homemade chairs built of driftwood
as you go) to reach the old lifeboat house in Piriglis Cove. This
is where the islanders keep their boats in summer and where a young
chap I know builds and/or repairs fabulous old wooden vessels reminiscent
of the days when a lifeboat really did live here.
Now I recommend you leave the coast (the short northern section
back past Porth Killer to the quay is not the most exciting) and
walk up New Lane to what could otherwise be known as downtown St
Agnes. You'll find a new café up near the Old Coastguard
Houses - you'll see the grand old lighthouse, Britain's smallest
school, the post office and stores and then there's another tearoom
at Higher Town.
This will bring you back to the shoulder of hill where you left
the island's "main road” so now it's simply a matter of strolling
back to the landing quay past the conveniently placed pub. If you
have time, treat yourself to a well-earned pint, happy in the knowledge
that you've more or less circumnavigated the most south-westerly
corner of the entire UK.
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