St. Agnes

St Agnes is the southernmost inhabited island in the Isles of Scilly, linked to the smaller Gugh by a sandbar called the Gugh Bar. The island’s landscape divides between sheltered settlements in the north and open heather moorland in the south. Four small villages—Troy Town, Lower Town, Middle Town and Higher Town—form the main population centres. Once home to pilots guiding ships through the Channel, St Agnes now relies on tourism and bulb farming. Its lighthouse, no longer lit, stands as a converted home, while the Troy Town Maze offers a seven-ring labyrinth of beach pebbles. The island’s playing field marks the site of mass burials after the 1707 naval disaster, and a standing stone known as the Nag’s Head adds to its landmarks. Visitors walk the coastal paths of Wingletang Down, where rare ferns and orchids grow. Big Pool and Little Pool, the island’s freshwater ponds, show signs of the 1755 Lisbon tsunami in their vegetation. The Turk’s Head pub hosts summer gig races and winter quizzes, while the parish church holds a bell salvaged from a wreck. Birdwatchers arrive each autumn to spot rare vagrants such as the first British hooded warbler recorded here in 1972.