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In Search of Island Chapels... Ramsey Island, Pembrokeshire.
Wednesday 5th February 2025
David Gleed
Out there, on the horizon, Islands beckon, they always do, even on seemingly uninviting, wet, murky days. There's something mysterious and enchanting about an island, something to be discovered... And getting there is always such an adventure!
There's a spiritual pull too. These are places on the edge, distant from the mainland, where creation is raw and the gap between heaven and earth can seem wonderfully thin.
Around the coast and in the inland waters of Britain and Ireland, islands gently, sometimes abruptly as though thrusting towards a glorious new day, rise above the waterline in numbers. Mostly off the west and northern coasts, but with a good number to the east and south as well, and right across the mainland, in the larger rivers, lakes, meres and lochs.
It will come as no surprise that on many of the islands over the centuries, small chapels and hermitages have been built, and where the pull has been particularly strong and land space available, larger churches and monasteries.
Arriving at the site of an early hermitage or chapel, perhaps now with the passage of time, no more than a mound of stones with only the vaguest outline indicating its original use, and as one stands and lets the place sink in, one becomes aware of an echo reaching back over the centuries, linking then with now on a shared journey, as real then as it is now. An experience for the pilgrim that is as joyful as it is humbling, as it is awesome... And at this point whether one set out as pilgrim or not, one is a pilgrim.
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There's a particularly lovely stretch of coast path between St Non's and St Justinian's, on the Pembrokeshire Coastal path. It's a walk we often do with pilgrim groups the day before crossing to Ramsey Island. At one point, turning a corner along the closely cropped grassy path, the Sound of Ramsey suddenly comes into full view and there beyond, on the other side, the island of tomorrows adventure - now that's good staging!
The following morning anticipation is always high as we clamber up the steps to the walkway around the lifeboat station at St Justinian's, and then down the shallower steps of the boat slipway itself to the twenty-four-seat motor launch moored alongside and waiting to take us off to the island. Only a short distance, the crossing to the island must nonetheless, never be taken lightly. The waters here can be dangerous with jagged rocks and a whirlpool racing around (usually) submerged, Horse Rock. On my first visit some years ago the skipper insisted on taking us across the whirlpool - the sort of thing you probably only want to do the once! But today there are no 'diversions' and in a short space of time we arrive safely in the little island harbour.
A bird sanctuary sensitively accommodating of both human and bird life, Ramsey Island has been in the care of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) since 1992.
Without the churches and crosses of Caldey Island, a little further around the coast, Ramsey may at first appear to be less spiritual in atmosphere, but not so... just stand a moment; let the breeze gently brush past you; notice the sheep grazing by the dry-stone wall; the sea, moving, shining, living... The echo is part of the very land and seascape of this unspoilt island gem.
Pilgrims have been coming to Ramsey Island since at least the second century when St Tyfanog built a small hermitage here, most probably alongside the stream in the tiny valley just up from the landing stage, not far from the farmhouse, now home to the island's two full-time wardens. Whenever I visit Ramsey, I always look around this spot hoping to gain a clearer understanding of the exact location of the hermitage. But time has done a thorough job in scattering the stones and while we might have an idea of it's likely position, I'm really none-the-wiser than on previous visits, but that's fine... maybe next time...
David Gleed is a member of the Journeying team.
Ramsey Island is included in our 2025 'St Davids and the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path', pilgrim journey, 17th - 23rd May.
Image: Ramsey Island (Ynys Dewi), Pembrokeshire, from Carn Llidi.