Gugh
Encyclopedia
Gugh could be described as the sixth inhabited island of the Isles of Scilly
, but is usually included with St Agnes with which it is joined by a sandy tombolo
known as "The Bar" when exposed at low tide. The island is only one km long and about 0.5 km wide, with the highest point, Kittern Hill at 34 m. The geology consists of Hercynian granite with shallow podzolic soils on the higher ground and deeper sandy soils on the lower ground. The former Gugh farm is just north of the neck across the middle of the island between the two hills. The two houses were designed and built in the 1920s by a Mr Cooper.
The island lies within the Isles of Scilly Heritage Coast
, is in the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
and is managed by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust
. Vegetation cover is mainly wind-pruned heath or dense bracken and bramble with a small area of coastal grassland formed over blown sand which has accumulated near the bar.
The name is often mispronounced as "Goo", "Guff" or even "Gogh".
, and Bronze Age
cairns. Entrance graves are either burial or ritual monuments and cairns are burial mounds. A lack of finds, most likely because of acid soils destroying any evidence, makes the dating of the monuments difficult but a few pottery remains date them to late Neolithic
or early bronze age. On Kittern Hill there are five entrance graves, one of which Obadiah's Barrow was excavated in 1900 and ″disarticulate unburnt bones″ found. There is also a cluster of fourteen cairns which are linked by prehistoric field walls or banks but the relationship between the two is not established. The only menhir
to be excavated on Scilly is the Old Man of Gugh, a 2.7 m tall standing stone which lies at the base of Kittern Hill, but there was no features or finds. There is also a cluster of nineteen cairns and a field system on the south part of Gugh along with a further two entrance graves. An English Civil War
battery
was built over one on Carn of Works and its chamber re-used as a magazine
. The Civil War defences are concentrated around the Scillonian coast to defend the deep-water approaches.
Two kelp pits have been recognised, one on the north-east side of Kittern Hill and the second at Tol Tuppens. Burning seaweed was introduced in 1684 by Mr Nance on Teän
to provide sodium carbonate
for glass making and continued until 1835. Kelp burning only produces 2-3 percent sodium carbonate and during the 19th century more efficient commercial and industrial methods ended the practice locally.
Part of Gugh is a Scheduled Monument and the whole island is recommended for scheduling.
in 1976 and re-notified under the 1981 Act in 1986. The SSSI covers an area of 36.6 ha of which 35.3 ha was assessed as "unfavourable recovering" when it was last reviewed on 30 July 2010.
The reasons for the unfavourable assessment is because there is too much ground cover of bramble (Rubus fruiticosus
) and Pittosporum
, and the heath on Kittern Hill is less interesting than on the rest of the island. The reason is probably because of a fire on the hill in 1972 and subsequently there is less Cladonia
sp. (a lichen). The Pittosporum requires urgent control and the island needs grazing to return it to a favourable condition. There is also a problem with the recent appearance of stone mazes which should be discouraged.
The notifiable habitats for Gugh are the heath communities; H7
, H8 and H11.
Much of the vegetation of Gugh is wind-pruned, dry, waved maritime heath or dense gorse and bracken. The three dominant species on the heath are heather (Calluna vulgaris
), bell heather (Erica cinerea
) and western gorse (Ulex gallii). Immediately above the bar is a small area of dune grassland merging into maritime grassland around the coastal fringe. On the small dune system grows western clover (Trifolium occidentale), sea holly (Eryngium maritimum), sea spurge (Euphorbia paralias
) and Portland spurge (Euphorbia portlandica), wild thyme (Thymus polytrichus) and sea bindweed (Calystegia soldanella
). The neck of the island between the two hills where the farm was has an unusual flora. Amongst dense bracken is balm-leaved figwort (Scrophularia scorodonia), common here but not found elsewhere on the island and an unidentified yellow, cultivated rose. A second alien, Argentine dock (Rumex frutescens) grows on the edge of a sand pit which was originally intended to be a reservoir. The fields below the two houses were, before 1933, fertilised with "shoddy" – a high nitrate manure derived from the woollen industry. Within these fields can be found viper’s-bugloss (Echium vulgare), common melilot (Melilotus officinalis
) and wild mignonette (Reseda lutea
). All three are thought to be imported arable weeds. In the 1960s the "neck" was a closely cropped sward of grass but after myxomatosis
the area became overgrown with bracken and bramble.
In October, 1972 a fire on Kittern Hill burnt though the shallow peaty soil to the granite. Bleached stones and blackened gorse stems can still be seen and the vegetation has not recovered sufficiently to equal the waved heath elsewhere on Scilly. Heath is on the hills on both sides of “the neck” and in the south of the island the nationally rare orange bird’s-foot (Ornithopus pinnatus) can be found as can rare lichen species such as Lobaria pulmonaria
and golden-hair lichen (Teloschistes flavicans).
for the attention of Martin Hinton who identified it as the lesser white-toothed shrew (Crocidura suaveolens). Known as the "Scilly Shrew", the type specimen is held by the British Museum. The other mammals found on Gugh are feral cats, rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) and possibly the house mouse (Mus musculus).
Rabbits are currently the only grazing animal and in the 1960s myxomatosis decimated the population and led to an increase of scrub on parts of the island, especially "the neck" where in some years cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) were attracted by the large numbers of garden tiger moth (Arctia caja) and other large caterpillars. In one year the number of garden tiger larvae was 90 per square metre! The last grazing animals left in 1974 and Natural England
would like grazing animals back on Gugh to counteract the effects of the scrub and dense sward of grass covering parts of the island. A cobalt
deficiency in the soil means grazing animals need supplements.
In the southern part of the island large colonies of lesser-black-blacked (Larus fuscus graellsii) and herring gull (Larus argentatus) breed, as do a small number of greater black-backed gull (Larus marinus). Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) and kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) no longer breed here.
To protect and enhance the islands' seabirds and to protect Annet from re–invasion a feasibility study was carried out to see if it is possible to eradicate rats from the Isles of Scilly. A winter trapping survey on St Agnes and Gugh indicated that those islands had a population of 3300 brown rats. It was found the rats foraged on a variety of food including Scilly shrew which were found in the stomach contents of 18% of the rats trapped. Furthermore numbers of the shrew were higher in areas where the rats were controlled; an indication that rats are having an affect on their numbers. The survey showed that it was both feasible, and there are significant benefits, to remove the rats as they are preventing Manx shearwater and storm petrel from establishing on St Agnes and Gugh.
Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...
, but is usually included with St Agnes with which it is joined by a sandy tombolo
Tombolo
A tombolo, from the Italian tombolo, derived from the Latin tumulus, meaning 'mound,' and sometimes translated as ayre , is a deposition landform in which an island is attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such as a spit or bar. Once attached, the island is then known as a tied island...
known as "The Bar" when exposed at low tide. The island is only one km long and about 0.5 km wide, with the highest point, Kittern Hill at 34 m. The geology consists of Hercynian granite with shallow podzolic soils on the higher ground and deeper sandy soils on the lower ground. The former Gugh farm is just north of the neck across the middle of the island between the two hills. The two houses were designed and built in the 1920s by a Mr Cooper.
The island lies within the Isles of Scilly Heritage Coast
Heritage Coast
A Heritage Coast is a strip of UK coastline designated by the Countryside Agency in England and the Countryside Council for Wales as having notable natural beauty or scientific significance.- Designated coastline :...
, is in the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...
and is managed by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust
Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust
The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall, England, UK.The trust works in conjunction with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, and jointly produces a thrice yearly magazine called Wild Cornwall & Wild Scilly.It is dedicated to ensuring...
. Vegetation cover is mainly wind-pruned heath or dense bracken and bramble with a small area of coastal grassland formed over blown sand which has accumulated near the bar.
The name is often mispronounced as "Goo", "Guff" or even "Gogh".
History
The earliest signs of occupation on Gugh are two groups, each, of entrance gravesScillonian entrance grave
The entrance graves of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, and south east Ireland are megalithic chamber tombs of the Neolithic and early Bronze Age in the British Isles. Comparable sites are also known in Brittany and the Channel Islands...
, and Bronze Age
Bronze Age Britain
Bronze Age Britain refers to the period of British history that spanned from c. 2,500 until c. 800 BC. Lasting for approximately 1700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the era of Iron Age Britain...
cairns. Entrance graves are either burial or ritual monuments and cairns are burial mounds. A lack of finds, most likely because of acid soils destroying any evidence, makes the dating of the monuments difficult but a few pottery remains date them to late Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
or early bronze age. On Kittern Hill there are five entrance graves, one of which Obadiah's Barrow was excavated in 1900 and ″disarticulate unburnt bones″ found. There is also a cluster of fourteen cairns which are linked by prehistoric field walls or banks but the relationship between the two is not established. The only menhir
Menhir
A menhir is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Their size can vary considerably; but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top...
to be excavated on Scilly is the Old Man of Gugh, a 2.7 m tall standing stone which lies at the base of Kittern Hill, but there was no features or finds. There is also a cluster of nineteen cairns and a field system on the south part of Gugh along with a further two entrance graves. An English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
battery
Artillery battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...
was built over one on Carn of Works and its chamber re-used as a magazine
Magazine (artillery)
Magazine is the name for an item or place within which ammunition is stored. It is taken from the Arabic word "makahazin" meaning "warehouse".-Ammunition storage areas:...
. The Civil War defences are concentrated around the Scillonian coast to defend the deep-water approaches.
Two kelp pits have been recognised, one on the north-east side of Kittern Hill and the second at Tol Tuppens. Burning seaweed was introduced in 1684 by Mr Nance on Teän
Teän
Teän is one of the uninhabited islands to the north of the Isles of Scilly archipelago between Tresco, 1.5 km to the west and St Martin's 300 m to the east....
to provide sodium carbonate
Sodium carbonate
Sodium carbonate , Na2CO3 is a sodium salt of carbonic acid. It most commonly occurs as a crystalline heptahydrate, which readily effloresces to form a white powder, the monohydrate. Sodium carbonate is domestically well-known for its everyday use as a water softener. It can be extracted from the...
for glass making and continued until 1835. Kelp burning only produces 2-3 percent sodium carbonate and during the 19th century more efficient commercial and industrial methods ended the practice locally.
Part of Gugh is a Scheduled Monument and the whole island is recommended for scheduling.
Natural History
The island was first notified as a Site of Special Scientific InterestSite of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
in 1976 and re-notified under the 1981 Act in 1986. The SSSI covers an area of 36.6 ha of which 35.3 ha was assessed as "unfavourable recovering" when it was last reviewed on 30 July 2010.
"Although the vascular plant assemblage (VPA) is favourable the notified heathland habitat is recorded as unfavourable recovering.
The VPA species are all present and occurring in suitable habitat except for small adder's-tongue (Ophioglossum azoricumOphioglossum azoricumOphioglossum azoricum is a small fern of the family Ophioglossaceae.- Description :The frond consists of a single, pointed leaf blade and a narrow pointed spore-bearing spike on a stalk. The spike has about 4-18 segments on each side, each of which opens up when ripe to release spores...
) which has not been recorded on this site since 1986, however the former site appears suitable for the species and is therefore recorded as favourable".
The reasons for the unfavourable assessment is because there is too much ground cover of bramble (Rubus fruiticosus
Blackberry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by any of several species in the Rubus genus of the Rosaceae family. The fruit is not a true berry; botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets. The plants typically have biennial canes and perennial roots. Blackberries and...
) and Pittosporum
Pittosporum
Pittosporum is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Pittosporaceae. The genus is probably Gondwanan in origin; its present range extends from Australasia, Oceania, eastern Asia and some parts of Africa. Citriobatus is usually included here, but might be a distinct genus...
, and the heath on Kittern Hill is less interesting than on the rest of the island. The reason is probably because of a fire on the hill in 1972 and subsequently there is less Cladonia
Cladonia
Cladonia is a genus of moss-like lichens in the family Cladoniaceae. They are the primary food source for reindeer and caribou. Cladonia species are of economic importance to reindeer-herders, such as the Sami in Scandinavia or the Nenets in Russia. Antibiotic compounds are extracted from some...
sp. (a lichen). The Pittosporum requires urgent control and the island needs grazing to return it to a favourable condition. There is also a problem with the recent appearance of stone mazes which should be discouraged.
The notifiable habitats for Gugh are the heath communities; H7
British NVC community H7
NVC community H7 is one of the heath communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of two communities categorised as maritime heaths....
, H8 and H11.
Flora
Calluna
Calluna vulgaris is the sole species in the genus Calluna in the family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing perennial shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found widely in Europe and Asia Minor on acidic soils in open sunny situations and in moderate shade...
), bell heather (Erica cinerea
Erica
Erica ,the heaths or heathers, is a genus of approximately 860 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. The English common names "heath" and "heather" are shared by some closely related genera of similar appearance....
) and western gorse (Ulex gallii). Immediately above the bar is a small area of dune grassland merging into maritime grassland around the coastal fringe. On the small dune system grows western clover (Trifolium occidentale), sea holly (Eryngium maritimum), sea spurge (Euphorbia paralias
Euphorbia paralias
Euphorbia paralias is a species of Euphorbia, native to Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia.It is a glaucous perennial plant growing up to 70 cm tall. The crowded leaves are elliptic-ovate and 5 to 20 mm long.The species is widely naturalised in Australia...
) and Portland spurge (Euphorbia portlandica), wild thyme (Thymus polytrichus) and sea bindweed (Calystegia soldanella
Calystegia soldanella
The morning glory Calystegia soldanella is a species of bindweed known by the common names seashore false bindweed and beach morning glory...
). The neck of the island between the two hills where the farm was has an unusual flora. Amongst dense bracken is balm-leaved figwort (Scrophularia scorodonia), common here but not found elsewhere on the island and an unidentified yellow, cultivated rose. A second alien, Argentine dock (Rumex frutescens) grows on the edge of a sand pit which was originally intended to be a reservoir. The fields below the two houses were, before 1933, fertilised with "shoddy" – a high nitrate manure derived from the woollen industry. Within these fields can be found viper’s-bugloss (Echium vulgare), common melilot (Melilotus officinalis
Melilotus officinalis
Melilotus officinalis, known as the yellow sweet clover, yellow melilot, ribbed melilot or common melilot is a species of legume native to Eurasia and introduced in North America, Africa and Australia.-Description:...
) and wild mignonette (Reseda lutea
Reseda lutea
Reseda lutea or Wild Mignonette is a species of fragrant herbaceous plant. Its roots have been used to make a yellow dye called "weld" since the first millennium BC, although the related plant Reseda luteola was more widely used for that purpose.A native of Eurasia and North Africa, the plant is...
). All three are thought to be imported arable weeds. In the 1960s the "neck" was a closely cropped sward of grass but after myxomatosis
Myxomatosis
Myxomatosis is a disease that affects rabbits and is caused by the Myxoma virus. It was first observed in Uruguay in laboratory rabbits in the late 19th century. It was introduced into Australia in 1950 in an attempt to control the rabbit population...
the area became overgrown with bracken and bramble.
In October, 1972 a fire on Kittern Hill burnt though the shallow peaty soil to the granite. Bleached stones and blackened gorse stems can still be seen and the vegetation has not recovered sufficiently to equal the waved heath elsewhere on Scilly. Heath is on the hills on both sides of “the neck” and in the south of the island the nationally rare orange bird’s-foot (Ornithopus pinnatus) can be found as can rare lichen species such as Lobaria pulmonaria
Lobaria pulmonaria
Lobaria pulmonaria is a large epiphytic lichen consisting of an ascomycete fungus and a green algal partner living together in a symbiotic relationship with a cyanobacterium—a symbiosis involving members of three kingdoms of organisms...
and golden-hair lichen (Teloschistes flavicans).
Rare plants
- Shore dock (Rumex rupestris) first discovered here in 1893 by John RalfsJohn RalfsJohn Ralfs was an English botanist. Born in Millbrook, near Southampton, he was the second son of Samuel Ralfs, a yeoman of an old family in Hampshire...
still extant in the 1960s but now extinct - Small adder's-tongue (Ophioglossum azoricum) has not been seen since at least the mid-1980s. The site was on the east coast between Carn Kimbra and Point Witcher. The only area of the SSSI that was classified as "favourable".
- Four-leaved allseed (Polycarpon tetraphyllumPolycarpon tetraphyllumPolycarpon tetraphyllum, commonly known as Four-leaved Allseed , is a plant of the family Caryophyllaceae . An annual herb growing to 15 cm in height, it is found on sandy soils, in coastal areas and on wasteland. Native to Europe, it is also naturalised in parts of North America, Australia and...
) was recorded by Lousley in 1939 and 1940
Fauna
In July, 1924, W N Blair caught a shrew which he did not recognise and sent a specimen to the British MuseumBritish Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
for the attention of Martin Hinton who identified it as the lesser white-toothed shrew (Crocidura suaveolens). Known as the "Scilly Shrew", the type specimen is held by the British Museum. The other mammals found on Gugh are feral cats, rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) and possibly the house mouse (Mus musculus).
Rabbits are currently the only grazing animal and in the 1960s myxomatosis decimated the population and led to an increase of scrub on parts of the island, especially "the neck" where in some years cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) were attracted by the large numbers of garden tiger moth (Arctia caja) and other large caterpillars. In one year the number of garden tiger larvae was 90 per square metre! The last grazing animals left in 1974 and Natural England
Natural England
Natural England is the non-departmental public body of the UK government responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and soils, are protected and improved...
would like grazing animals back on Gugh to counteract the effects of the scrub and dense sward of grass covering parts of the island. A cobalt
Cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....
deficiency in the soil means grazing animals need supplements.
In the southern part of the island large colonies of lesser-black-blacked (Larus fuscus graellsii) and herring gull (Larus argentatus) breed, as do a small number of greater black-backed gull (Larus marinus). Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) and kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) no longer breed here.
To protect and enhance the islands' seabirds and to protect Annet from re–invasion a feasibility study was carried out to see if it is possible to eradicate rats from the Isles of Scilly. A winter trapping survey on St Agnes and Gugh indicated that those islands had a population of 3300 brown rats. It was found the rats foraged on a variety of food including Scilly shrew which were found in the stomach contents of 18% of the rats trapped. Furthermore numbers of the shrew were higher in areas where the rats were controlled; an indication that rats are having an affect on their numbers. The survey showed that it was both feasible, and there are significant benefits, to remove the rats as they are preventing Manx shearwater and storm petrel from establishing on St Agnes and Gugh.
2009 breeding season
Lesser black-backed gull bred on Gugh but with low chick productivity, and the small colony of kittiwake nested, but failed for at least the fourth year.Rare birds
- A white-tailed eagle (Haliaetus albicilla) with a wingspan of 7' 6" (2.29 m) shot on the Gugh in November 1909.
- A white-tailed eagle (Haliaetus albicilla) was seen on the Isles of Scilly (and Bosigran, ZennorZennorZennor is a village and civil parish in Cornwall in England. The parish includes the villages of Zennor, Boswednack and Porthmeor and the hamlet of Treen. It is located on the north coast, about north of Penzance. Alphabetically, the parish is the last in Britain—its name comes from the Cornish...
) from April 1947 onwards. It was thought to roost on Gugh where it was once seen eating a shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis).
See also
- British National Vegetation ClassificationBritish National Vegetation ClassificationThe British National Vegetation Classification or NVC is a system of classifying natural habitat types in Great Britain according to the vegetation they contain....
- South WallsSouth WallsSouth Walls is an inhabited island adjacent to Hoy in Orkney, Scotland. The name is a corruption of "Sooth Was", which means the "southern voes" - as with Kirkwall, it was assumed that it was a mispronunciation of "walls"....
in Orkney - List of places with fewer than ten residents