I have always lived my life in the flow, moving from one thing to another; travelling, studying, working – with no particular plan or place I was trying to get to, just the feeling that I wanted to do something that matters. In September 2019, the flow of my life carried me to Ynys Enlli, to work as a warden with my boyfriend. Overnight our world became a rock in the middle of the sea, two miles from the tip of Pen Llŷn (the Llŷn Peninsula).
The island is owned by Ymddiriedolaeth Ynys Enlli – Bardsey Island Trust, which protects and promotes it as a place of special scientific, historical and spiritual interest. In 2023 it became the first site in Europe to be awarded International Dark Sky Sanctuary certification, joining 16 other sites worldwide recognised as the most remote and dark places on earth.
Thousands of years of history
Enlli is small. It’s only a mile and a half at its longest and a half mile at its widest. But its size doesn’t detract from its stature. The island is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It attracts thousands of visitors every year, but people have been drawn to it for centuries. Traces of huts dating back to the Iron Age (700 BC) lie low in the bracken on the mountain, and ruins from a thirteenth century abbey stood almost in our back garden. The first abbey on the island was built in the sixth century.
We lived at the end of a pilgrimage route, where it is said that 20,000 saints are buried. Today, 20,000 pairs of Manx Shearwater birds nest there.
Over the centuries the island's population has ebbed and flowed. At the turn of the twentieth century there were over a hundred people living and working on the island. Today, there's just a handful of people living there.
The island is an explosion of wildlife, and a rare place where the past and the present meet. The earth and heavens also meet on Enlli, according to some, and I must say that on a day when the golden sun melts into the glass-like sea, I tend to agree. However it’s a bit harder to believe on a stormy winter’s day.
The houses standing today were built by Lord Newborough in the early 1870s. They have been built as strong as castles. There is nothing to slow down the wild winds of the Irish Sea and yet they still stand proud after a hundred and fifty winters. Looking after those houses and their gardens throughout the year was one of our main responsibilities as wardens.
Freedom from the modern world
Coming to stay on Enlli is a unique experience. The island has always provided a pause from the hustle-and-bustle of the mainland, but today the island's peace and escapism from all the mod-cons of our modern world offers a memorable holiday for friends and families. There is no Wi-Fi or electricity in the houses, and the water flows straight from a well. It's an off-grid and unplugged experience like no other.
The holiday season runs from April to September. I was three years old when my parents first took me there on holiday, and like many others, we returned every year. That is the power of the island, there is something that draws people back for decades.
Visiting and working on Enlli are very different experiences of course; and it’s easy to romanticise about living in such a wild and beautiful place. However a lot of our work was with a shovel and a spade or a mop and a cloth! No two days were the same, with the exception perhaps of changeover day in the summer – when all accommodation needs to be thoroughly cleaned after parting with previous guests, before welcoming the next.
The job changed with the seasons. Six months full, six months empty. From gardening to cleaning, planting trees to digging, building to painting – the maintenance work on an island was never-ending!
There is nothing glamorous about being a warden, but it is comforting to know that we devoted our time and energy to conserving and preserving such a unique place. Not forgetting of course the pockets of time between tasks when we got to swim with seals, or kayak between two tides, or walk ancient paths with the sky alive with birds from all corners of the world.
So even though our toilet was at the bottom of the garden and we had no shop around the corner, we stepped out from our front door into one of the most beautiful and wild places in the world, and there is nowhere else on the planet I’d rather have been!
Take a day trip to the island with Bardsey Island Boat Trips.
Discover more about Wales' pilgrimage trails, including the North Wales Pilgrim's Way.
