BryherCornwall

Bryher at a glance

Bryher: a small Isles of Scilly island of hills, bays and a brackish pool

Bryher is one of the smallest inhabited islands of the Isles of Scilly, off the south-west tip of England. It lies west of Tresco across the Tresco Channel, and the uninhabited island of Samson lies off its southern end. The island is about 2 km long and 1 km across at its widest. It had 84 residents at the 2011 census, and the settlement at the Pool is the westernmost in England.

Bryher is a chain of hills joined by low necks and sandy bars. The central area is low-lying, with fields, pasture and most of the population. Shipman Head at the northern end has a cairnfield of more than 130 Early Bronze Age cairns and seabird colonies. Great Pool, on the west side, is the only true brackish lagoon in the Isles of Scilly. Rushy Bay in the south has sandy beaches, and Green Bay has the remains of a prehistoric field system that shows at low tide.

Hell Bay, on the north west coast just south of Shipman Head, is open to the Atlantic and was notorious for shipwrecks in the 18th and 19th centuries. Hell Bay Hotel takes its name from it. All Saints' Church, in the centre of the island, dates from about 1742 and was later enlarged.

Boats to Tresco and St Mary's use two quays, Church Quay at high water and Bar Quay at low water. Bar Quay was built by volunteers in 1990 for the television programme Challenge Anneka. There are guesthouses, self-catering cottages and a campsite near the north end. Bryher has three Sites of Special Scientific Interest and lies within the Isles of Scilly Heritage Coast and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Bryher has been used as a filming location, including for the 1989 BBC adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The writer Annie Winifred Ellerman took the pen name Bryher in the early 20th century.