Grassholm ( cy, Gwales or ) or Grassholm Island is a small uninhabited island situated off the southwestern Pembrokeshire coast in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, lying west of

Skomer Skomer () or Skomer Island is an island off the coast of Pembrokeshire, in the community of Marloes and St Brides in west Wales. It is well known for its wildlife: around half the world's population of Manx shearwaters nest on the island, the A ...

, in the community of

Marloes and St Brides Marloes and St. Brides (Welsh: ''Marloes a Sain Ffraid'') is a community in the West Wales county of Pembrokeshire. The main settlements are the villages of Marloes and St Brides. Both villages lie on the southern shore of St Brides Bay The ...

. It is the westernmost point in Wales other than the isolated rocks on which the

Smalls Lighthouse Smalls Lighthouse stands on the largest of a group of wave-washed basalt and dolerite rocks known as The Smalls approximately west of Marloes Peninsula in Pembrokeshire, Wales, and west of Grassholm. It was erected in 1861 by engineer Jam ...

stands. Grassholm is known for its huge colony of

northern gannet The northern gannet (''Morus bassanus'') is a seabird, the largest species of the gannet family, Sulidae. It is native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, breeding in Western Europe and Northeastern North America. It is the largest seabird in t ...

s; the island has been owned since 1947 by the

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment thr ...

, and is one of its oldest reserves. It reaches . Grassholm National Nature Reserve is the third most important site for gannets in the world, after two sites in Scotland: St Kilda and

Bass Rock The Bass Rock, or simply the Bass (), ( gd, Creag nam Bathais or gd, Am Bas) is an island in the outer part of the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland. Approximately offshore, and north-east of North Berwick, it is a steep-sided volca ...

. It serves as a breeding site for 39,000 pairs of the birds, and supports around 10 percent of the world population. The turbulent sea around Grassholm is a good feeding area for porpoises and bottlenose dolphins. The island has a significant problem with marine plastic, brought to the island by breeding gannets, as nesting material which the birds have mistaken for seaweed floating in the surrounding waters. The problem has been ongoing through twelve years of RSPB conservation to 2017, and surveys have indicated that 80% of nests contain waste plastics. Boats sail to Grassholm from

St Davids Lifeboat Station St Davids Lifeboat Station (based in St Justinian, St Davids, Pembrokeshire, Wales) is a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) station. It was opened in 1869 and to date has been involved in saving over 360 lives at sea in more than 420 lau ...

and

Martin's Haven Martin's Haven is a small bay in Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK, on the Dale Peninsula, with views across St Bride's Bay towards St David's. Its shingle beach has a stone slipway which acts as an embarkation point for the ferry which visits the near ...

on the mainland, but members of the public are not permitted to land. Geologically, the island is largely formed from keratophyre, though the northwest coast and the islet of West Tump are formed from

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

. A couple of NE-SW aligned faults cross the island. Raised beaches are present in places.

The entertaining of the noble head

Grassholm has been identified with ''Gwales'', an island in the medieval Welsh story (Branwen the daughter of Llŷr), one of the

Four Branches of the Mabinogi The ''Four Branches of the Mabinogi'' or ''Pedair Cainc Y Mabinogi'' are the earliest prose stories in the literature of Britain. Originally written in Wales in Middle Welsh, but widely available in translations, the ''Mabinogi'' is generally agre ...

. Gwales is the site of a fabulous castle where the severed head of

Brân the Blessed Brân the Blessed ( cy, Bendigeidfran or ''Brân Fendigaidd'', literally "Blessed Crow") is a giant and king of Britain in Welsh mythology. He appears in several of the Welsh Triads, but his most significant role is in the Second Branch of ...

is kept miraculously alive for eighty years while his companions feast in blissful forgetfulness, until the opening of a forbidden door that faces

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

recalls them to their sorrow and the need to bury the head at the White Mount (the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...

). ''Brân'' is the Welsh for 'raven', which has a legendary connection with the Tower of London.''

The Mabinogion The ''Mabinogion'' () are the earliest Welsh prose stories, and belong to the Matter of Britain. The stories were compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, create ...

:'
Branwen the Daughter of Llyr
translated by

Lady Charlotte Guest Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Guest (née Bertie; 19 May 1812 – 15 January 1895), later Lady Charlotte Schreiber, was an English aristocrat who is best known as the first publisher in modern print format of the '' Mabinogion'', the earliest prose l ...

. Online a
www.sacred-texts.com
Newstead, Professor Helaine H., Bran the Blessed in Arthurian Romance pub. Columbia University Press 1939.

Shipwreck

On 15 July 1945, the cargo ship ran aground on Grassholm and sank. Nine crew were rescued by the Angle Lifeboat.

References

External links

RSPB websiteRSPB boat to Grassholm and Ramsey Island
* Large scale map {{Celtic mythology (Welsh) Islands of Pembrokeshire National nature reserves in Wales Nature Conservation Review sites Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reserves in Wales Special Protection Areas in Wales Uninhabited islands of Wales

The entertaining of the noble head

Shipwreck

See also

References

External links