Cardigan Island
| Cardigan Island Welsh: Ynys Aberteifi | |
 The south end of Cardigan Island | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Location: | 52°7’60"N, 4°40’60"W |
| Grid reference: | SN161515 |
| Area: | 38 acres |
| Highest point: | 171 feet |
| Data | |
| Population: | Uninhabited |
Cardigan Island is a small, uninhabited island of 38 acres lying in the sea north of Cardigan, in the very south of Cardiganshire. It reaches a maximum height of 171 feet above sea level and 38 acres in extent.
The island lies just 200 yards off a minor headland guarding the opening of the estuary of the River Teifi, near Gwbert.
Cardigan Island is known for having a small colony of grey seals. It is owned and managed by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales.
The island was once the home of puffins and Manx shearwater. A guide book in the 1890s referred to the puffins as "Welsh parrots". In 1924 the writer and naturalist Ronald Lockley wrote that there were probably 25 to 30 pairs on the island. However, in 1934 a ship ran aground on the island in a storm, and rats made it ashore. Over a period of years they ate the eggs and chicks of nesting seabirds, and wiped out the island’s population of puffin and Manx shearwater, which have never returned.[1]
Today birds such as guillemots, razorbills, cormorants, shags, fulmars and a variety of sea-gulls all nest on the island. Bottlenose dolphins and Atlantic grey seals are also often seen in the sea around the island.[2]
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