DAY 4: TRESCO

A DAY ON TRESCO

MORNING

TRESCO is on the agenda today, and by now you’ll be starting to appreciate just how different the islands are from one another. Tresco feels more orderly, more genteel, and has lots of little signposts directing you around the island. It’s privately owned, and everything on the island – from the cottages to the bike hire to the famous Abbey Garden – is part of a single family-run business, which belongs to the descendants of a Hertfordshire squire who first leased it from the Duchy of Cornwall in 1834. The first tripper boat from St Mary’s leaves for Tresco’s New Grimsby Harbour at 10am [later morning departures at 10.15am & 11.15am | £12 return, children £6], from where it’s a short walk up the coast to CROMWELL’S CASTLE [open during daylight hours | free]. This round tower was built in 1651, shortly after the Roundheads’ conquered the Royalist Scillies, to protect the channel into New Grimsby Harbour, and several canons still stand guard over the waters that separate Tresco and neighbouring Bryher. A little bit further up the hill, lie the ruins of KING CHARLES CASTLE [open during daylight hours | free], which gets its name from the Royalist troops who were garrisoned here during the English Civil War. From here, you can loop back down to the harbour to pick up some bikes from Tresco Bike Hire [£16 for the day, child’s bikes £13 for the day]. Tresco – like all of the off-islands – is car-free, so you can enjoy pootling along the island’s roads and tracks without worrying about traffic. Head southeast, past Great Pool, towards the eastern side of the island, where you could call in at the beautiful beach at PENTLE BAY before cycling up towards OLD GRIMSBY for lunch; The Ruin Beach Café does a fine line in wood-fired pizzas.

AFTERNOON

The island is best known for TRESCO ABBEY GARDEN [open daily from 10am to 4pm | £18, under-16s £5, under-5s free, family ticket £40], established around the ruins of a Benedictine priory by the current owner’s great-great-great-granduncle in the 1830s. Making the most of the Scillies’ subtropical climate, the gorgeous gardens are home to some 20,000 plants from all corners of the globe. Keep an eye out for the huge flower heads of the aptly named King Protea from South Africa and the vibrant red flame trees from Australia’s east coast – and the exotic-looking golden pheasants strutting beneath them. In the corner of the gardens, the Valhalla Museum contains the carved figureheads of some of the thousands of ships that have been wrecked off the Isles of Scilly. You can leave your bikes at the gardens, but allow enough time to walk down to the quay at Carn Near, at the southern tip of Tresco, to catch the last boat back to St Mary’s, which normally leaves at 4.45pm [there’s usually an earlier departure at 3.45pm].

TOP TIP Wooden GIG-RACING takes place over the summer on Wednesday and Friday evenings, a tradition that dates back to when pilot gigs would race out to help guide larger vessels into St Mary’s harbour or act as lifeboats to sinking ships wrecked on the rocks offshore. Boats leave to watch the race up-close from St Mary’s harbour [depart at 7.45pm | £7, children £3.50] – although you can also get a decent view from Star Castle and the Garrison’s walls. If you’re here over the Bank Holiday weekend in early May, you can also catch the WORLD PILOT GIG CHAMPIONSHIPS, when around 120 gigs from across the globe congregate in Scilly to race for the title.

WHERE TO STAY

STAR CASTLE HOTEL