LIFE'S A BEACH #49 - ST AGNES
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If you would like to add more caches to this series, please feel free to do so!
Please contact heartradio through his profile first so that he can keep track of numbers and avoid duplications. Caches can be any type except Traditionals
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There are so many beautiful beaches on the Isles of Scilly - too many to place a Life's a Beach cache at each one. So, I am placing one cache per island with information to be found at some of the main beaches. There is also a final bonus cache which you will be able to find when you've completed all 5 other caches.
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To find this cache you'll need to visit each of the following seasidey places on Bryher, and collect the following information. It doesn't matter what order you collect them in, where you start may depend what quay you get off at
Quay:
St Agnes is the only off-island to only have one quay, because it is situated in deeper water so there's no need for a low tide quay. At the top of the quay here you will find some benches. One is in memory of Audrey Hardisty who was born in 193A
Periglis:
You are now at Periglis where the old Lifeboat Station is, and where the church is. Out to sea from here you can see the daymark on Tins Walbert. This was used by sailors in the olden days and they lined it up with the lighthouse to ensure they entered the islands through the deep water channel. The lighthouse was the first lighthouse built on Scilly in 1680 and it ran on coal until it was converted to oil in the late 1700s. It has been disused since the new Peninnis lighthouse on St Marys was built. At the coordinates you'll find a wooden sign, the number of times the letter B appears will give you....wait for it....B!
Troytown:
Troytown Farm is the UK's most southwesterly farm, famous for its dairy products, predominantly ice-cream! Also famous around this bit of St Agnes is the Troytown Maze, pictured above. There is uncertainty as to just when it was built, however the general consensus seems to be around medieval times. Yet when I searched to just double check the date just now, one site said it was built in 1729 by the lighthouse keeper. Anyway, you won't be going quite as far as the maze before you've got this next bit of information. At the waypoint 'Troytown' - the number of conditions shown in the 'Outlook' column is C.
St Warna's Cove:
You're now at St Warna's Cove, just entering on to Wingletang Down. On the far side of the bay there's a stone well close to where St Warna is said to have landed in a boat after a journey from Ireland. In bygone days pins and nails used to be dropped into the well to pray for storms to bring ships ashore. Obviously a bad thing for the people on board but a good thing for the poverty-stricken islanders who could salvage the wrecks. You will now be at a stile - the number of painted arrows on BOTH sides of the stile equals D.
Now proceed (maybe you could proceed as St Warna, who was thought to be the water goddess, would have done, for comic effect!) to the waypoint St Warna's Cove 2, where there's another stile. This time, go to the west side of the stile and count the number of nails on the 'step'. The number of nails will equal E
Beady Pool (optional):
This is Beady Pool and also Porth Askin (over the western side of the narrow strip of land) which you can go to if you want but I'm not forcing you to - there's no information to be found here. However, Beady Pool is very interesting. As we know from St Warna's Cove just now, wrecks were vital to the island community. In the 17th century a ship, from Venice it seems, washed up on the rocks off Beady Pool. It was carrying a large cargo of ceramic beads, which can still be found on the beach today.
Cove Vean:
Cove Vean is a secluded beach on St Agnes facing the small island of Gugh, whiich you'll learn more about when you get to the Bar. This is where the island's old gig shed is. At the coordinates is a stone with writing on. The number of letters in the second line of text equals F.
The Bar:
No drinks provided, sorry guys! This is the sandbar that connects St Agnes to the small island of Gugh (which rhymes with Hugh). Gugh IS inhabited - there are 2 houses on it and it must feel very very isolated at high tide. Anyway, go to the coordinates and there you'll find a date engraved near a horseshoe. The date is 19G6
By now you should have all the information you need to know that the final cache is at:
N49 53.(A)(E-B)(F-D-B) W006 20.(E-C)(G-B)(A-B)
Remember to make a note of the bonus information!
Cache placed with the kind permission of the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust.
Please be aware of livestock while you are on the island, especially round the Troytown area.
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St Agnes joins the island of Gugh by a tombolo, a kind of sandbar, called the Gugh Bar, which is exposed only at low tide. The Gugh is inhabited, with some three residents. The two islands of St Agnes and Gugh together have a population of 85 residents recorded in the 2011 census (73 were recorded in the 2001 census) and a landmass of 366 acres (148 ha). Without the Gugh included, St Agnes is marginally smaller than Bryher in either population or area; however if Gugh is included with St Agnes, it is Bryher that is marginally smaller in area and population.
In earlier times many men from St Agnes earned a living as pilots, guiding transatlantic liners and other vessels through the English Channel. Now the mainstay of the economy is tourism, together with some bulb farming. Accommodation is limited, and St Agnes is the only populated island in the Isles of Scilly which has no hotel.