Buzza Tower

Buzza Tower stands on St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly, a small granite island off Cornwall’s south-west tip. It is a three-storey windmill built in 1821 and later fitted with a camera obscura. The tower once had eight Mediterranean-style sails on a wooden shaft and an internal winch to turn the cap. Its last millers were George Davis in 1856 and William Watt after him. The mill was known as the Spanish Mill when it ground corn.

The Grade II listed structure was restored in 1912 as a memorial to King Edward VII, when sheltered seating was added to the exterior. In 2012–2014 another restoration installed the camera obscura, which opened in 2014 but closed during the pandemic and has not reopened. The mill’s Grade II status was confirmed in 1992.

Inside, visitors find the circular chamber where the camera obscura projects images of the surrounding islands onto a white table. Outside, the granite walls and sheltered seating remain from the 1912 memorial. The tower’s Mediterranean-style sails and internal winch recall its working life as a windmill. Views stretch across St Mary’s Harbour and the neighbouring islets.