Ynys Enlli

Lying off the coast of the Llyn peninsula, Ynys Enlli – or Bardsey Island in English – is soaked in history and is home to a huge variety and diversity of wildlife, and is recognised nationally and internationally as such.
Here you’ll find birds, rare flowering plants, lichens, liverworts and mosses, coastal grassland and heathland, sea cliff ledges and marine wildlife. The reserve forms part of several larger sites around the mainland coast and seas of the Llyn Peninsula which are recognised internationally for their outstanding wildlife, in particular their bird life, sea cliff habitats and marine wildlife.

It is protected by its designations of Ynys Enlli SSSI, Aberdaron Coast and Bardsey Island SPA, and Seacliffs of Lleyn SAC.

Grid Ref: SH117213 Area: 178.64 hectares

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Visiting

Photo by Mike
McCabe,©CCW

There are marked paths around the island.

Visitors are asked to keep to these paths to avoid damage or disturbance to the sensitive wildlife and for their own safety, and are also advised against swimming or venturing onto the steep cliffs or the rocky shore.

How to get there

Access is by boat only. Day trips usually start from Porth Meudwy, but sometimes from Pwllheli.

You can book a day trip by phoning Bardsey Island Ferry on 08458 113655, 07836 293146 or 07896 111983.

Photo by Mike
McCabe,©CCW

Public Transport
For public transport to Pwllheli and Poth Meudwy, contact Traveline Cymru on 0871 2002233 or visit www.traveline-cymru.org.uk

Facilities

There are toilets and a visitor centre.

The island is home to the Bardsey Island Bird and Field Observatory, which makes valuable contributions to migration studies of wild birds.

For more information on this visit www.bbfo.org.uk.

A number of cottages on the island are available to rent as holiday lets – visit www.bardsey.org for details.

Photo by Mike
McCabe,©CCW

Who looks after it?

Bardsey Island Trust manages the reserve. Visit the website www.bardsey.org or contact the Trust on 08458 112233.

You can contact CCW’s Northern Team via the our enquiries helpline, 0845 1306229, by e-mailing enquires@ccw.gov.uk or by writing to us under the ‘Contact the team’ section on this website.

Wildlife

The birds are the most visible outward sign of the diversity on Bardsey. Long before landing on the island, you’ll notice that the air around the cliffs is full of gulls, cormorants and shags.

Photo by Mike
McCabe,©CCW

Throughout spring more birds arrive from their wintering grounds out at sea. They include:

kittiwakes
razorbills
guillemots
fulmars and
Manx shearwaters which breed on the sea cliffs and in burrows safe from predatory land mammals.

The island is home to four nationally important lichens, all characteristic of the different habitats found here.

Photo by Mike
McCabe,©CCW

They include the nationally rare ciliate strap lichen and the evocatively named golden hair lichen found in soil habitats. Other important communities colonise the island’s trees and plants.

The cliffs themselves are an important habitat, supporting many rare plants such as rock sea lavender. Natural rock exposures, and even man-made structures are home to yet more of Bardsey’s hundreds of species.

The shoreline is varied, from low rocky shores to sheer cliffs and everything in between.

Bardsey’s coastline represents, on a smaller scale, the range and variation present on the rocky shores around Cardigan Bay.

These variations provide anchorage and shelter for diverse wildlife, seaweeds in sediment-floored rockpools, some deep and filled with brown seaweeds and kelps, some shallow and encrusted with coralline seaweed and coral reed.

Marine animals hide under the boulders amongst the serrated wrack on the lower shore. Sponges and red seaweeds cling to the overhanging lower shore bedrock.