Introduction
Wales displays two prominent peninsulas: Llyn in the North and
Pembroke in the South. Between them is the broad sweep of Cardigan
Bay. Two miles out to sea off the tip of the Llyn Peninsula lies
Bardsey Island (Welsh name Ynys Enlli).
Bardsey Island has long been associated with religious activity. Pre-Roman Celts visited the island to pray and often to die on this most western isle as they followed the setting sun. During early Christian times Bardsey Island was a place of pilgrimage. There is a pilgrim's route along the North Wales coast with a string of churches built along the way. Indeed three trips to Bardsey was considered equal to a pilgrimage to Rome. Anybody buried on Bardsey was guaranteed eternal salvation.
On the island itself are the remains of the thirteenth century
abbey as well as a large grave yard. Many people still use the
island as a religious retreat.
The island is also of interest to ornithologists since it is a
stop over for many migrating birds. The first UK bird observatory
was on Bardsey.
In 1998 my friend Andy Clarke was using a mist net to catch passing
birds in order to ring them. To bait his net he picked some windfall
apples from under a gnarled old tree growing up the side of one
of the island's houses called Plas Bach.
Andy, a keen organic gardener, noticed that the fruit and the
tree were free of disease, a very unusual occurrence in north
Wales. He later brought several of the fruit to me for identification.
I didn't recognise the apples and subsequently sent the to the
National Fruit Collection at Brogdale in Kent where Dr Joan Morgan
the country's leading fruit historian declared that the fruit
and the tree were unique. "The rarest tree in the world" clamoured
the media.
I have now produced trees from the mother tree on the island.
As yet we have no information as to how the tree performs on the
mainland. I hope to use this website to collate information regarding
the tree and its fruit. If you have any information about the
Bardsey Island tree or fruit then please use the Bulletin Board. |