St George's Island - Callum Deveney introduces us to one of Cornwall's island jewels set in coastal waters teeming with life. The colourful natural history of St George's Island today is matched by an equally colourful history of human habitation.

A marine nature reserve/ St George's is one of only a few inhabited islands off the coast of Cornwall. A trip over offers the unexpected: on occasions you'll be escorted by a school of dolphins or watched off the boat by a grey seal. The islanders have become accustomed to the sea bringing them daily surprises ranging from cannon balls to beached whales.

Legend and myth are inextricably interwoven with the history of the island and tales of smuggling, buried treasure and shipwrecks abound. The most important recent history was two sisters from Surrey coming to own the island in the 1960s. Without their will, vision and love of all that is special about islands this wildlife haven would not exist. In 2000 Babs Atkins leased the island to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust to be managed as a nature reserve so that its unique character could be conserved.

Human occupation of the island has been recorded as far back as the 12th Century with a Benedictine chapel being built in 1139. A few stones remain on the chapel site which is at the island's highest point of 150 feet. Throughout the

ages a small number of people lived on the island, farming its 22 acres and at times supplementing their income with a spot of smuggling - on the west of the island there are caves that run deep into the cliffs. The main island house was built by customs so a watch could be kept for any illegal activity.

The island is a quiet haven for wildlife with a variety of habitat including; woodland, maritime grassland, cliffs, sand & shingle and rocky reef. In the spring the small woodland has a carpet of wild garlic and bluebells and the cool shade is a welcome resting spot on the trail around the island. Parts of the trail are closed in the

spring/summer to protect nesting seabirds; the second largest colony of great black-backed gulls in Cornwall can be found on the island. The cliffs are swathes of pink with thrift in the early summer and this is the time of year to see basking sharks feeding along the coast.

The waters around the island are teeming with marine creatures and a large rocky reef is covered and exposed with the rise and fall of the tide. Monitoring the marine environment is an important part of the Trust's work, assessing over the years any changes in the presence and abundance of different species. Studies like this may help to assess the impact of