Qualla: Samson, Isles of Scilly https://qualla.com/samson-isles-of-scilly en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:10 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/k/samson-isles-of-scilly-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Samson, Isles of Scilly https://qualla.com/samson-isles-of-scilly Samson, Isles of Scilly: Introduction https://qualla.com/samson-isles-of-scilly/ Photo credit CDSnapper, CC BY-SA 2.0. Samson has two hills, and the people who lived there for thousands of years are all gone. The island sits between Bryher and St Mary's, 38 hectares of granite, bracken, and dune, with a single sandy isthmus tying its North Hill to its South Hill like a knot in a thrown rope. From the air the silhouette is unmistakable. From the ground it is haunted. The cottages still stand, roofless and ivy-throttled, exactly where they were left when the last families were taken off in 1855. The official reason given was poverty. The deeper reason was that an island as small and exposed as Samson cannot sustain the kind of life that thinks itself permanent.

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Image: CDSnapper | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/k/samson-isles-of-scilly-wp/gbgk-samson-isles-of-scilly-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Samson, Isles of Scilly: Twin Hills, Ancient Names https://qualla.com/samson-isles-of-scilly/ Photo credit Bob Embleton, CC BY-SA 2.0. The early inhabitants of the Atlantic fringe were not shy about reading the human body into the land. The twin hills of Samson sit beside the Paps of Jura in Scotland and the Paps of Anu in Ireland as breast-shaped landscape features that drew the same anthropomorphic vocabulary ...

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Image: Bob Embleton | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/k/samson-isles-of-scilly-wp/gbgk-samson-isles-of-scilly-twin-hills-ancient-names.mp3 0:06 2 full Samson, Isles of Scilly: The Documented Life https://qualla.com/samson-isles-of-scilly/ Photo credit Graham Loveland, CC BY-SA 2.0. The first written evidence of habitation comes from the Interregnum Survey of 1651-52, the same Parliamentary administration that had just hammered the Royalist garrison at St Mary's into surrender. Samson supported a handful of families through fishing, kelp burning, and tiny pa...

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Image: Graham Loveland | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/k/samson-isles-of-scilly-wp/gbgk-samson-isles-of-scilly-the-documented-life.mp3 0:06 3 full Samson, Isles of Scilly: The Eviction https://qualla.com/samson-isles-of-scilly/ Photo credit Daniel Bagshaw, CC BY-SA 2.5. Augustus Smith, the new Lord Proprietor of Scilly from 1834, was a reformer with a hard edge. He found the Samson families starving, isolated, and dependent on poor relief from the larger islands. In 1855 he removed them. The official story is that he persuaded the last residents...

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Image: Daniel Bagshaw | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/k/samson-isles-of-scilly-wp/gbgk-samson-isles-of-scilly-the-eviction.mp3 0:06 4 full Samson, Isles of Scilly: What Returns https://qualla.com/samson-isles-of-scilly/ Photo credit Andrewrabbott, Public domain. Uninhabited does not mean empty. Samson is one of the most important grey seal pupping sites in the archipelago, and shelducks, oystercatchers, and ringed plovers raise their broods undisturbed along its beaches. Manx shearwaters once nested in the cairns; the island has been con...

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Image: Andrewrabbott | Public domain

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/g/k/samson-isles-of-scilly-wp/gbgk-samson-isles-of-scilly-what-returns.mp3 0:06 5 full