Scilly's fascinating ancient history...
From shipwrecks to treasure, and from Bronze Age burial chambers to deserted villages, the history of Scilly is utterly compelling – especially as it mingles so tantalisingly with modern-day life on the islands. Scilly’s tiny land mass is home to 239 scheduled monuments, which means there is a greater density of historical sites here than anywhere else in the British Isles.
Everything on Scilly revolves around the sea… our maritime heritage is something that all Scillonian families are proud of with the traditional pastimes of flower farming, arable farming, fishing for lobsters, crabs and crawfish, and pilot gig rowing still prospering to this day.
The Isles of Scilly have a long, fascinating ancient history, it is theorised it was originally one large island, called ‘Ennor’ from the Old Cornish for ‘Great Island’, that was flooded by the rising sea levels circa 400 AD. There is also evidence of settlement as early as the Stone Age, and you can still find submerged stone walls and boundaries dotted around.
The English Civil War
Let's jump ahead to a better documented era in the archipelagos’ history, the English Civil War…Scilly was one of the last strongholds where the Royalists held out against the Parliamentarians. During Elizabeth I’s reign various defensive structures, such as The Old Blockhouse, Star Castle, and King Charles’ Castle (re-named this after the Civil War), were built which would become key in defending the islands. You can still see these defensive structures today, and the Star Castle is now even used as a hotel. Eventually, in June 1651 the Royalist forces were defeated, but not before the Isles of Scilly entered one of the longest wars in history against the Netherlands.
This may come as a surprise to many readers, and it certainly did to the residents in the Isles of Scilly and Netherlands when in 1985 they found out they’d unknowingly been at war with each other for 335 years. So, how did this ridiculous scenario come about? During the Civil War the Netherlands supported the Parliamentarians, and the Royalists retaliated by raiding Dutch ships, leading to Admiral Maarten Tromp eventually declaring war on the Isles of Scilly in 1651. However, the war never came to anything as three months later the Parliamentarians successfully took over the Isles of Scilly, and the Dutch sailed home. Unfortunately, they also forgot to declare peace before they left. It was not until 1985, when Roy Duncan (a historian from the Isles of Scilly) wrote to the Dutch Embassy researching the war, that their mistake was discovered. In the following year a peace treaty was finally signed between the Isles of Scilly and the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Scilly's Maritime Legacy
Unsurprisingly, the Isles of Scilly has a great deal of maritime history and heritage. The islands lie at the junction of five international shipping routes making it an important ‘ship park’, where ships could re-stock and wait for the right wind. The livelihood of the residents was often centred around this, selling passing ships fresh water, fresh vegetables, meat, beer, and just about anything that would go. There was also a trade in boat repairs and pilotage, where local pilots would guide the ships in and around the islands. Additionally, the Isles of Scilly has six lighthouses to shine light from every approach, which were constructed from 1680 to 1911, and you will probably see a few of them as you approach. The lighthouses are there with good reason, a high volume of ships passing through also meant a lot of shipwrecks, bringing us onto a darker part of the island’s history…
Shipwrecks & Lost Treasures
The unpredictable seas and shallow rock reefs around the Isles of Scilly made a deadly combination. There have been over 1,000 recorded shipwrecks around the islands, and you can still find many remaining ones. There is also a museum named Valhalla on Tresco which houses a collection of salvaged figureheads from the wrecks. Arguably the worst of these wrecks, and one of the greatest disasters in British maritime history, was in 1707 when four of the Royal Navy’s ships were sunk. The estimated death toll was 1,400- 2,000, almost as many people as are living on the Isles of Scilly today. For days afterwards bodies were still being washed ashore, and you can still find a small memorial erected at Porthellick Cove where the Admiral and his flag-captain were found.
