page_title: Aberdaron
section_title: Bardsey Island
hierarchical_section_title: Aberdaron / Landmarks / Bardsey Island
caption_attribution_description: English: Carreg Bach on Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island) This little cottage is the kind of house people used to live in on Bardsey. This one is owned by the Bardsey Island Trust who look after the island. There is no electricity, running water or drainage. Like some of the other houses this one is let to visitors. The Bardsey Island Trust have a web-site at http://www.enlli.org/ where you can find out more about this island.
context_page_description: Aberdaron is a community, electoral ward and former fishing village at the western tip of the Llŷn Peninsula in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. It lies 14.8 miles west of Pwllheli and 33.5 miles south west of Caernarfon, and has a population of 965. The community includes Bardsey Island, the coastal area around Porthor, and the villages of Anelog, Llanfaelrhys, Penycaerau, Rhoshirwaun, Rhydlios, Uwchmynydd and Y Rhiw. It covers an area of just under 50 square kilometres.
  Y Rhiw and Llanfaelrhys have long been linked by sharing rectors and by their close proximity, but were originally ecclesiastical parishes in themselves. The parish of Bodferin/Bodverin was assimilated in the 19th century. The village was the last rest stop for pilgrims heading to Bardsey Island, the legendary "island of 20,000 saints". In the 18th and 19th centuries it developed as a shipbuilding centre and port. The mining and quarrying industries became major employers, and limestone, lead, jasper and manganese were exported. There are the ruins of an old pier running out to sea at Porth Simdde, which is the local name for the west end of Aberdaron Beach.
context_section_description: Bardsey Island, 1.9 miles (3.1 km) off the mainland, was inhabited in Neolithic times, and traces of hut circles remain. During the 5th century the island became a refuge for persecuted Christians, and a small Celtic monastery existed. Saint Cadfan arrived from Brittany in 516 and, under his guidance, St Mary's Abbey was built. For centuries the island was important as "the holy place of burial for all the bravest and best in the land". Bards called it "the land of indulgences, absolution and pardon, the road to Heaven, and the gate to Paradise"' and in medieval times three pilgrimages to Bardsey Island were considered to be of equivalent benefit to the soul as one to Rome. In 1188 the abbey was still a Celtic institution, but by 1212 it belonged to the Augustinians. Many people still walk to Aberdaron and Uwchmynydd each year in the footsteps of the saints, although today only ruins of the old abbey's 13th-century bell tower remain. A Celtic cross amidst the ruins commemorates the 20,000 saints reputed to be buried on the island.
  The island was declared a national nature reserve in 1986, and is part of Aberdaron Coast and Bardsey Island Special Protection Area. It is now a favourite bird-watching location, on the migration routes of thousands of birds. Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory (Welsh: Gwylfa Maes ac Adar Ynys Enlli), founded in 1953, nets and rings 8,000 birds each year to understand their migration patterns.
  Bardsey Island Trust bought the island in 1979, after an appeal supported by the Church in Wales and many Welsh academics and public figures. The trust is financed through membership subscriptions, grants and donations, and is dedicated to protecting the wildlife, buildings and archaeological sites of the island; promoting its artistic and cultural life; and encouraging people to visit as a place of natural beauty and pilgrimage. When, in 2000, the trust advertised for a tenant for the 440 acres (180 ha) sheep farm on the island, they had 1,100 applications. The tenancy is now held by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; and the land is managed to maintain the natural habitat. Oats, turnips and swedes are grown; goats, ducks, geese and chickens kept; and there is a mixed flock of sheep and Welsh Black cattle.
  The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society has been working on cetaceans in the region. Several species, most notably bottlenose dolphins, can be observed from the shores.
caption: Restored cottages on Bardsey Island
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