Pretty little UK island where ‘Merlin is buried in a glass coffin’

For an island of just 1.5 by 0.6 miles long there sure is a lot packed into Bardsey just two miles off the Welsh coast.

It has a rich wildlife, dramatic coast and interesting history and legends.

Topping the bill is the longstanding claim that Merlin, the mythological wizard from the Legend of King Arthur, was buried on the island.

The legends vary from him “sleeping in a glass tomb or castle” to being in a cave, but in all cases, he is surrounded by the 13 treasures of Britain.

It is worth noting that there are several other alleged resting places of the wizard, including

Marlborough Mound, a 62-foot mound in Wiltshire and Merlin’s Grave, a site on the east bank of the Tweed in the Scottish Borders, north of Drumelzier Church.

There are also two alleged sites in France, at Broceliande Forest in Brittany and the Tombeau de Merlin, a ruined megalithic grave.

But, the Arthurian legends don’t stop there with some claiming that the island is, in fact, the mythical island of Avalon, and therefore also the final resting place of King Arthur.

It has been a destination for Christian pilgrims since the 6th century and features the ruins of an abbey.

The island is just two miles off the southern tip of the Llŷn Peninsula.

In the 6th Century, St Cadfan founded a monastery on the island and his successor St Leuddad invented a myth that anyone who died on the island would not go to hell.

It led to it becoming one of the holiest places in Britain attracting thousands of pilgrims each year.

From the early Middle Ages it was also claimed that 20,000 saints had been buried on the islands, despite its tiny frame.

In more recent history, the island had its own king.

Now with just 11 homes, about 100 years ago it was home to a community of fishermen and crofters totalling about 200.

They elected their own “king”, the last of which was crowned in 1918, called Love Pritchard. He died in 1927 and is buried in Aberdaron churchyard near the beach.

The small island also has a bird observatory and wide variety of flora and fauna, which has given it SSSI protected status, as a national nature reserve and site of special scientific interest (SSSI).

In 1979 the island was purchased by the Bardsey Island Trust and is now managed by the Trust with advice from Natural Resources Wales.

Rising to a height of 167 meters, the whole island has a surface area of 180 hectares, most of which is farmland.

There are just 12 Grade II listed properties on the island – one is a private letting to the Evans family (who have lived on Bardsey for three generations).

Nine properties are let out by the Bardsey Island Trust as holiday lettings.

In February 2023 it became the first place in Europe to be made an International Dark Skies Sanctuary (IDSS) following a 13-year campaign to be named an official site for stargazing.

This was due to its “exceptional” astronomical displays due to its only light visible at night coming from the stars and a very distant glow from Dublin.