Porth Minick is quite a small bay and has also had substantial sea defence works to reinforce the sea bank. One of the best stands of sea-kale Crambe maritima grows at the top of the beach, and I once saw an islander collecting leaves of the plants by the sack-load – whether to use as a vegetable or perhaps more likely to feed tame rabbits was not clear. Among the rocks at one end of the beach are clumps of house holly-fern Cyrtomium falcata growing in deep crevices where it has been established for many years among the boulders. Fortunately the beach works stopped just before reaching the fern.
Porth Hellick is a large inlet at the seaward end of the Higher Moors nature trail. There is a narrow sandy beach and below it a rocky bay with pools and shallows that attract many birds; at times rare waders will turn up to feed at low water. Between the reedbed around Porth Hellick Pool and the bay there is a narrow strip of tall grassland with wild angelica Angelica sylvestris, balm-leaved figwort and bracken. The bank of the Porth is densely planted with clumps of spiky rhodostachys Fascicularia bicolor, replacing the New Zealand flax Phormium sp. that formerly grew there to consolidate the low dune. The seaward side of the bank supports common dune plants, marram Ammophila arenaria, sea sandwort Honckenya peploides, sea-kale, yellow horned-poppy and oraches Atriplex spp. This is also a good place to look for the distinctive little striped nymphs of the lesser cockroach Ectobius panzeri. Greek sea-spurrey Spergularia bocconii used to grow near the small granite monument to Sir Cloudesley Shovell at the top of the beach, although it has not been seen there for many years, possibly due to the changes that have been made to the sea bank (recently Greek sea-spurrey has been re-found at other sites on the east coast of St Mary’s). The monument marks the spot where the ill-fated admiral’s body was first buried (it is now in Westminster Abbey) when it came ashore after his fleet foundered in the islands in 1707. Another very beautiful sandy bay on the east side of the island is at Pelistry, with its sparkling white sands and unsurpassed views towards Toll’s Island and a distant view of the Eastern Isles.
There are also sandy bays on the west coast of St Mary’s. Porth Mellon is on the edge of Hugh Town and popular for sailing and other activities. There is a degraded sand dune at the back of the bay with some typical species among the marram grass. The next small sandy bay is Thomas’s Porth, backed by narrow dunes and dune grassland. A little group of small bulb fields above the bay once
FIG 36. The coastal form of wall rue, with unusually thick and fleshy fronds. St Mary’s, June 2004. (Rosemary Parslow)
grew a crop of the original Sol d’Or narcissus. Among interesting arable species in these fields are fumitories Fumaria spp., small-flowered catchfly and masses of starflowers Tristagma uniflorum. One of the less common Carpobrotus species grows beside the footpath and Babington’s leek grows in the dunes. At Porthloo the grassland behind the dunes is used for boat standing and boat building; occasionally plants such as hairy buttercup Ranunculus sardous and arable weed species can turn up here due to the constant traffic and disturbance. Wall rue Asplenium ruta-muraria grows on a wall near here, the only place the fern is known on St Mary’s (Fig. 36). The fronds are unusually thick and fleshy, probably due to exposure to salt spray. Porthloo is also a geological SSSI, based on the Quaternary sedimentary deposits in the cliffs, the raised beaches, and organic material that includes pollen indicating former arctic tundra conditions in the palaeoclimate of the island.
WETLANDS
On St Mary’s there are two large wetland nature reserves, Higher Moors and Lower Moors. Higher Moors is fed by a stream that arises in Holy Vale and flows down through the Holy Vale nature trail through the tangle of tall elm trees, grey sallow and understorey of wetland plants either side of the raised pathway. The stream continues through an area of rank grassland and yellow iris. In the stream grow tall plants of fool’s-water-cress, water-cress Rorhippa nasturtium-aquaticum and hemlock water-dropwort. Higher Moors nature reserve and SSSI include both the ‘moor’ and Porth Hellick Pool. Access to the reserve is via a path leading from the road to the coast. Within the reserve views can be made from the boardwalk through the reedbed and from two bird hides overlooking the pool. Along the path a line of very large tussock-sedge Carex paniculata plants usually attract attention as they are up to a metre and a half high and have ferns and other plants growing epiphytically on their trunks. It seems quite shocking now to realise that at one time attempts were made to destroy the plants by killing them with herbicide and burning them. Fortunately, in more enlightened times, clearance of vegetation from around the sedges and cutting back the willow carr has encouraged them to spread. There are also some magnificent stands of royal fern as well as the ubiquitous lady fern Athyrium filix-femina throughout the site.
The Lower Moors nature reserve is situated in a low-lying area between Hugh Town and Old Town Bay (Fig. 37). A stream flows through the site to the sea at Old Town. Part of the area is reedbed, part marsh composed of beds of a very lax local variety of sea rush Juncus maritimus (the endemic var. atlanticus, according to
FIG 37. Lower Moors from the air, February 2004. (Rosemary Parslow)
Lousley), and there are areas of grey sallow carr, as well as a small pool and a scrape with bird hides on the bank. The pools and surrounding vegetation attract rare birds in the migration season. There are ditches, wetter areas and more open areas, all of which support a range of typical wetland plants.
There are also a few other small freshwater pools on St Mary’s, although several have generally degenerated into duck ponds. There is a pond beside the road from Porthloo to Rose Hill which, with the two fields on the west and Well Field on the east, is managed by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust as a nature reserve. These fields are composed of a mixture of wetland plants and open grassland. Very little of nature conservation interest remains in the duck pond these days; it has largely been given over to a collection of exotic ducks and a few half-tame moorhens Gallinula chloropus.
Two small freshwater pools at Newford, the Argy Moor pools, drain into the Watermill Stream. Originally designed as ponds as part of a failed attempt to grow flax (presumably the ponds would have been used to steep the plants), the ponds are now very eutrophic due to the large numbers of semi-domestic ducks that frequent the site. There are a number of introduced plants around the ponds and a few marginal species such as soft rush, but there now (2006) appear to be no aquatic plants, although prior to the invasion of water fern Azolla filiculoides there had been a typical aquatic flora (Lousley, 1971). Whether it was the strenuous attempts to get rid of the water fern using herbicides that also eliminated all the aquatic plants, or whether the conditions of the ponds are no longer suitable, is unclear.
Shooter’s Pool, a small pool on farmland behind Lower Moors, is being developed to provide freshwater habitats for birds by the Isles of Scilly Bird Group (in 2005 the pool attracted a black-winged stilt Himantopus himantopus). This pool at one time had a population of the rare lesser water plantain, but this apparently disappeared some years ago. It will be interesting to see whether the plant reappears in future.
We’ll rant and roar, across the salt seas
Soon we’ll strike soundings in the Channel of Old England
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-four leagues.
Spanish Ladies, traditional sea-shanty
IN ADDITION TO St Mary’s there are four inhabited islands in the Isles of Scilly. These are called the ‘off-islands’ by Scillonians. Three were formerly joined to St Mary’s when Scilly was mainly one large island many centuries ago (see Chapter 2).