Qualla: Bardsey Island https://qualla.com/bardsey-island en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Bardsey Island https://qualla.com/bardsey-island Bardsey Island: Introduction https://qualla.com/bardsey-island/ By 2025 the year-round population had dropped to three. That is the end of a long story, and worth pausing over. In the medieval mind, Bardsey was one of the holiest places in Britain - the Island of 20,000 Saints, a destination for which three visits equalled a pilgrimage to Rome. In the 19th century the Newborough estate built sixteen Grade II-listed cottages here and rented them to farming families. In 1881 there were 132 people. By 1961 there were seventeen. In 2019 there were eleven. In 2025, three. The island has a Welsh name - Ynys Enlli - that translates as the Island in the Currents. The currents have been winning.

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/s/bardsey-island-wp/gcks-bardsey-island-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Bardsey Island: The Saints https://qualla.com/bardsey-island/ The first Christians arrived in the 5th century, fleeing persecution. Around 516 the Welsh king Einion Frenin invited the Breton saint Cadfan to leave his first community at Tywyn and move to the island. Under Cadfan's leadership, St Mary's Abbey was built. The community grew. By...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/s/bardsey-island-wp/gcks-bardsey-island-the-saints.mp3 0:06 2 full Bardsey Island: Kings of Bardsey https://qualla.com/bardsey-island/ It became tradition in the 19th century for the islanders to elect a king. The first known title-holder was John Williams. Beginning in 1820, each new king was crowned by Baron Newborough or his representative, with a tin crown brought across from the mainland. The third recorded...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/s/bardsey-island-wp/gcks-bardsey-island-kings-of-bardsey.mp3 0:06 3 full Bardsey Island: Bardsey Apple https://qualla.com/bardsey-island/ Sometime in the late 1990s, a man called Ian Sturrock noticed a gnarled and twisted apple tree growing by the side of one of the cottages, Plas Bach. In 1998 the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale - the home institution for British apple expertise - examined a specimen and con...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/s/bardsey-island-wp/gcks-bardsey-island-bardsey-apple.mp3 0:06 4 full Bardsey Island: The Trust and the Population https://qualla.com/bardsey-island/ Bardsey Island Trust bought the island in 1979 from the Newborough estate. When the trust advertised in 2000 for a tenant for the 440-acre sheep farm, they received 1,100 applications. The tenancy went to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which managed the land for h...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/s/bardsey-island-wp/gcks-bardsey-island-the-trust-and-the-population.mp3 0:06 5 full