Annet

Annet
Isles of Scilly (Cornwall)
Central Annet
Location
Data
Population:	’’uninhabited’’ os grid ref=SV864087

Annet is the second largest of the fifty or so uninhabited Isles of Scilly, and lies less than a mile to the west of St Agnes. It is about 52 acres in size.

The low lying island is almost divided in two by a narrow neck of land at West Porth which can, at times, be covered by waves. At the northern end of the island are the two granite carns of Annet Head and Carn Irish and three smaller carns known as the Haycocks. The rocky outcrops on the southern side of the island, such as South Carn, are smaller. Annet is a bird sanctuary and the main seabird breeding site in Scilly. The island is closed to the public year-round to limit the disturbance to the breeding seabirds for which it has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is also within part of the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and is managed by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust who lease it from the Duchy of Cornwall.

History

Little has been found on Annet in the way of human remains apart from a prehistoric hut circle, a fragmentary field system and several limpet middens. Bones of cattle and sheep were found indicating that they were eaten here and probably grazed the island. It is proposed to designate the whole of Annet as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

In the 19th century Annet was ″used for pasturage by the inhabitants of other islands″ although with only one freshwater seepage there could not have been many animals grazing on the island.

The SS Castleford struck the Crebawethans in June 1877 and led to some of her cargo of 250 to 450 cattle being landed on the island and staying there for up to ten days. Gurney (1889) reported that ″… the animals trampled everything and would have caused an immense amount of damage at the peak of the shearwater and storm petrel nesting season″. Cattle were washed up on the Cornish coast as far as Mount's Bay and St Ives. Another ship wrecked nearby, the ‘’Thomas W Lawson’’ spilled her cargo of oil on 14 December 1907 causing the loss of many birds. In 1971 Rex Cowan found the wreck of the VOC ‘’Hollandia’’. A large quantity of coins were found along with bronze cannons and mortars. The ship hit Gunner Rock on the 13 June 1743 with the loss of 276 lives.

Natural History

The geology of Annet is of Hercynian granite overlain with raised beach deposits. The island is low-lying with a top height of 59 feet and the coast consists of boulder storm beaches. The effects of wind exposure, salt spray and lack of topography, restricts diversity and only 53 species of vascular plants have been recorded. The north of the island is dominated by a well developed, thick, thrift turf whilst the southern part is dominated by dense stands of bracken, bramble and bluebells, with some sand sedge and Yorkshire fog. Thickets of tree mallow have developed at the back of some of the boulder beaches. There were scattered colonies of shore dock until a storm in 1982 swept away some of the boulder beaches.

One colony remains in the corner of a relatively sheltered beach in the south of the island at a freshwater seepage. Annet is the ″British stronghold″ for the lichen Roccella fuciformis.

A description of the island by Hilda Quick, a former resident of St Agnes published in 1964 is still relevant today:

″Many people are disappointed at being unable to visit the famous bird sanctuary, but in fact, there is very little to see there by day. There will be shearwater corpses lying about, (victims of the gulls) several large colonies of gulls, some oystercatchers, rock pipits, and wrens. The walking on the island is horrid, much of it over loose stones hidden in long grass, some bramble and bracken, and awkward great clumps of thrift. What Annet is famous for is its colonies of Manx shearwaters and storm petrels; but since they nest underground, and only come and go in the dark, there is nothing to be seen of them by day. One has to camp out for the night, which is often a chilly process, and requires special permission. The puffins that to breed there in such numbers that their bodies were used for paying rent are now few, and can best be seen from a boat as they swim on the water″.

Fauna

Annet is considered to be of outstanding importance as a seabird colony. Twelve species nest here, of which two, Storm Petrel and Lesser Back-backed Gull have nationally important breeding populations. The Storm Petrel breeds amongst the boulders of the more stable storm beaches. The largest population of Manx Shearwater in the islands breed here and the other annual breeding species are Puffin, Greater Black-backed Gull, Razorbill, Kittiwake, Fulmar, Herring Gull and Shag. Common Tern breed on the island most years as do Cormorant and very rarely Arctic Tern.

Breeding birds

Annet has long had a reputation for being the best island for breeding birds and Jessie Mothersole visiting in 1910 described the island thus:

″Annet is known by the name of " Bird Island," from the immense numbers that breed there. In the early summer the sea all round is black with puffins and razor-bills, their white breasts being hardly noticeable as they sit on the surface of the water ; and the air above is dark with clouds of gulls, and full of their ceaseless cry. Puffins (also called sea-parrots) have bred on the islands from time immemorial″.

Numbers of breeding birds have fallen over the years and in the last 150 years some of the threats have been recorded. The stranding of cattle from the SS Castleford, in 1877, would have caused a problem with so many heavy animals grazing and walking over the shallow soils and burrows of breeding birds. Another wreck, the Thomas W Lawson on 14 December 1907, spilled her cargo of oil and many of the rabbits and birds on Annet ″were seen to lie upon the shore″. The smell of oil could still be smelt on nearby St Agnes eighteen months later. At the time of Jessie Mothersoles visit in 1910, visitors were only allowed one hour on the island and shooting and egg collecting were forbidden. Despite this, Annet figured highly on the list of places to visit for egg collecting. An examination of the egg collection at the Natural History Museum shows 45 eggs taken between 1880 and 1936 by 14 individuals and one group from Holloway College; doubtless there are many more eggs in private collections. Names on the data cards include well known wildlife experts such as Charles Rothschild and F W Frohawk. An indication of how common and acceptable egg collecting was at the time, is the issue of day permits to visit uninhabited islands by the warden A A Dorrien-Smith of Tresco. A NHM data card for three eggs in the collection has a permit for landing on Annet on 24 May 1931 attached and allowed the Souter brothers to land on any island, except tern islands, for up to one hour.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Annet)

• The Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Beauty
• The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust
• Isles of Scilly Seabird Recovery Project: Frequently asked questions