Castaways sought for island life

Bardsey Island could produce 'a good living'

Professional castaways are being sought to take on the challenge of living on a remote Welsh island.

Bardsey is currently occupied by two nuns and trustees of the historic island are seeking hardy applicants to take on the challenge of joining them.

Suitable applicants must be willing to give up modern-day trappings and comforts for a rugged life on Bardsey, which lies two miles off the Lleyn Peninsula on the north Wales coast.

The island's trustees want people willing to commit the next 20 years of their life to working and living on Bardsey.

The beauty of the island is something I can't describe. It is totally unspoiled

Simon Glyn, Bardsey Island Trust

The post of professional castaway on the island is expected to be advertised in the New Year.

Simon Glyn, director of the Bardsey Island Trust, said the rewards for those desperate to escape the rat-race would far outweigh the difficulties of living such a rural life.

Interested parties would need to invest a considerable sum of money to buy a flock of sheep, a tractor and fishing boat to travel to the mainland.

But Mr Glyn insisted there was money to be made from the land and from the bed and breakfast cottages and cafe which attracts hundreds of tourists in the summer.

"We are looking for people to become professional castaways and are going to offer them a 20-year lease," he said.

"It could cost initially £25,000 or £30,000, but it is not a lot in one sense.

Bryn Terfel: 'King of Bardsey Island'

"There is so much there. The tranquility and the peace are something else.

"The beauty of the island is something I can't describe. It is totally unspoiled.

"Whoever comes to the island will make a living and if that person is enterprising they could make a comfortable living.

"But I think it is the beauty of Bardsey which will attract applicants."

The successful castaways would lead a more settled lifestyle than those people who took part in the BBC's Castaway 2000 experiment.

They will live in a 130-year-old three-bedroom farmhouse with a "wonderful open fire" and two accommodation units suitable for friends and relatives visiting from the mainland.

'King of Bardsey'

Children are not excluded from life on Bardsey Island - known in Welsh as Ynys Enlli - as parents would be able to educate their children in the village school, which has not had its own teacher since 1947.

Mr Glyn said the last farming couple left the island five years ago after a 300-year stint and the "three local lads" tending Bardsey had decided not to extend their "grazing agreement".

The Bardsey Island Trust bought the land in 1979, following a public appeal, and is responsible for its administration and upkeep.

Once a place of pilgrimage and a legendary burial place of saints, it became a national nature reserve in 1986 and has ruins from a 13th century monastery tower.

Steeped in history

Bardsey is steeped in history and even has its own "king", the Welsh opera star Bryn Terfel, who agreed to be patron of the island's trust.

He is only the symbolic head of the island, unlike the all-powerful past kings, and does not wear the original crown - it is owned by the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

The original, made of brass and tin, was last worn by King Love Pritchard, who died in 1927.

When he visited the mainland town of Pwllheli in 1925, he was welcomed by former Liberal Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, as an "overseas king".

The island even declared itself neutral in World War One after King Love was refused entry to the British forces for being too old.