About Islandeering
Hi and welcome to Islandeering Islandeering is for people who want adventure in Britain’s wild blue spaces – our rivers, coast, lakes, canals and islands. You will find amazing walks, paddles and swims in the UK’s most special places, those recognised for outstanding natural beauty, incredible geology or special and abundant wildlife.
More About UsWe continuously find new islands, rivers, lochs, canals and coast to walk, SUP and swim in and meet plenty of great folks along the way. Join our community to get new routes and adventures, latest blogs and news by using the email box below. Tune in also to our Facebook and Instagram pages to see where we are going next.
Key Facts
- Location: south Cornwall
- Size: < 10ha
- High point: 47m
- Map: OS Explorer 107 St Austell and Liskeard
The island dream of two sisters, now a nature reserve and oasis of tranquility away from the bustle of seaside Looe. Lying less than one kilometre off Cornwall’s south coast, this island is an unusual mix of woodland, grassland and beach all lovingly managed by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. The fabulous views back to the mainland’s coastline stretch from The Lizard to Prawle Point in Devon. The best way of experiencing the whole island is the gentle 1.5-kilometre walk around the island’s coast, which is packed with wildlife, smuggling legends and the fruits of self-sufficient living. To reach the island, a small passenger boat leaves Buller Quay, East Looe, tide and weather permitting (T: 07814 264 514). On the lowest spring tides, it is also possible to wade out to the island at low tide from near Hannafore Point.
Look out for
- Living the island dream Babs and Attie-style
- Veg envy in the warden’s gardens
- Immersing yourself in wildlife
- Walk around the whole island
Trips to Looe Island
The trip to Looe Island Nature Reserve is a 20-minute boat ride provided exclusively by Looe Sea Safari, which departs from Buller Quay, East Looe, near the RNLI Lifeboat Station. Visitors have approximately two hours to explore, weather and tide permitting. The return boat fee is £12 per adult and £6 per child, plus an £8 landing fee per adult and £3 per child on the island. A short introduction to the island is given by the wardens, and then you are free to roam (within the designated areas). Dogs are not permitted on Looe Island. Check the timetable for Looe Island trips https://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-03/Looe%20Island%202024%20Public%20Trips%20Timetable.pdf
Staying on Looe island
You too can live the the island dream of Bab’s and Attie. Looe Island accommodation includes cosy Smuggler’s Cottage, once home to the infamous brother-and-sister team, Finn and Black Joan. Said to be ‘more like a man as she dressed like one, rowed a boat, smoked a pipe and could use her fists when required’, Black Joan had at least one murder to her name. Spirits, silk stockings and tea came in from the Channel Islands via Looe Island – the perfect staging post for smuggling booty to the mainland.
There is also a family yurt near the high point of Looe island.
Both can be booked for a wildlife-packed three-night stay on the island. https://www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/explore/visit-looe-island/looe-island-holidays . The Looe Island ferry will drop you off on the island and you have to bring all food and drink with you.
Looe Island Walk
A delightful 1.5km walk around Looe Island offers great views across Looe Bay from The Lizard in Cornwall to Prawl Point in Devon, and enables you to see many of the island’s highlights. See the Islandeering route
Looe Island history
Atmospheric and steeped in legend, the island was said to be a stopping-off point for Joseph of Arimathea who landed here with the child, Jesus. Wild tales of free-traders and smugglers also abound but it is the story of two sisters, Babs and Evelyn Atkins, that resonates so deeply with visitors today. Back in the mid-1960s they achieved their long-held dream of owning this island, where they lived a happy, self-sufficient existence. Looe’s magical atmosphere, ramshackle vegetable plots, and the wardens’ tales of their home-made elderflower champagne almost bring them to life. You can read more about their bucolic yet harsh island life in Evelyn’s book, We Bought an Island.
Looe Island swim
The annual charity swim from Looe Island to East Looe Beach generally takes place in September. Participants are transported from the Quayside at Looe to the island on boats and then swim back to East Looe Beach. This iconic swim can only be undertaken as part of an organized event as swimming it not permitted otherwise on Looe Island to protect the wildlife. https://chestnutappeal.org.uk/looe-island-swim-2024/
Wildlife on Looe Island
The Ranneys, small rocky outcrops on the eastern tip of Looe Island, are a popular haul-out site for grey seals and home to the largest great black-backed gull colony in Cornwall. The waters around here are a designated conservation zone, providing rich habitat for many fish species, pink sea fan, stalked jellyfish and cuttlefish. Along the island’s south coast a small, green-turf-roofed bird hide is a good place to sit and watch the great black-backs, fulmars, herring gulls, cormorants and shags. The seals you’ll spot here are individually named – Lucille, Duchess, Snowdrop and Sunrise. Inside the hide there is a helpful identification guide as well as shelves stacked with curious bottles of medicines used by previous inhabitants.
What to do on Looe Island
Walking around Looe Island
About Islandeering
Hi and welcome to Islandeering Islandeering is for people who want adventure in Britain’s wild blue spaces – our rivers, coast, lakes, canals and islands. You will find amazing walks, paddles and swims in the UK’s most special places, those recognised for outstanding natural beauty, incredible geology or special and abundant wildlife.
More About UsWe continuously find new islands, rivers, lochs, canals and coast to walk, SUP and swim in and meet plenty of great folks along the way. Join our community to get new routes and adventures, latest blogs and news by using the email box below. Tune in also to our Facebook and Instagram pages to see where we are going next.
Key Facts
- Location: 2km from Looe, Cornwall
- Size: 9 hectares
- Terrain: easy paths, one small hill
- Access: boat trip from Looe
- Height gain: 57 metres
- Map: OS Explorer 107 St Austell and Liskeard
- Starting point: Looe Island jetty, Grid ref. SX 257 516
- No dogs allowed on Looe Island
Looe island walk summary
A gentle route around the perimeter of Looe Island on an easy-to-walk coast path, with plenty of wildlife to see along the way and great views back to Looe and across to The Lizard on clear days.
Look out for:
-
- Living the island dream Bab’s and Attie-style
- Meeting Claire and Jon, the island’s inspiring wardens
- Sitting peacefully in the bird hide immersing yourself in the wildlife
Looe Island walk description:
From the landing beach walk along the track with the wardens to the Tractor Shed then continue along the track that follows the northeast edge of the island past Smuggler’s Cottage, home to the infamous brother-and-sister team, Finn and Black Joan. Said to be ‘more like a man as she dressed like one, rowed a boat, smoked a pipe and could use her fists when required’, Black Joan had at least one murder to her name. Spirits, silk stockings and tea came in from the Channel Islands via Looe Island – the perfect staging post for smuggling booty to the mainland. Fittingly, the cottage is currently used to ferment the warden’s home-made wine and there are plans to turn it into a holiday let. Slightly further along the path is Babs’ Meadow, a simple stone at the top of the field marking her grave. Her sister Attie is at rest in St Martin’s church on the mainland.
Just before reaching the houses, the rustic vegetable gardens are a self-sufficiency enthusiast’s dream and a veritable organic larder that nourishes the wardens through their seasonal residency. Onions, garlic, runner beans, artichokes, sweetcorn, raspberries, sunflowers and rhubarb flourish amongst the rickety array of poles. Grapes and kiwi vines grow behind the shed and the greenhouse is packed with chillies, melons and aubergines. Old apple trees, young plum and walnut trees also thrive on the island to complete the feast.
Next to the vegetable plots, Coastguard Watch House (now called Island House) failed to put a stop to smuggling activities – unsurprising given the divided loyalties of the excise men. In later years, the Atkins sisters lived here. Evelyn taught in Looe, where she remained during the week, leaving Babs alone with no means of communicating with the mainland other than flags and hand-signals. In periods of sustained rough weather, spending long winter nights cut-off on an island reputed to be haunted must have required some nerve. Jetty Cottage, the barn the Atkins sisters used as a café and craft shop, is the wardens’ accommodation. Below it, explore the rocky shore where rock pools and crevices teem with marine life.
After passing the sheep enclosure to reach the eastern tip of the island and the adjoining islet (not accessible to the public), there are views to the skerries. Known as the Ranneys, they are a popular haul-out for grey seals and home to the largest great black-backed gull colony in Cornwall. Beyond, there are great views across Whitesand Bay and to Rame Head. The waters here are a designated conservation zone, providing rich habitat for many fish species, pink sea fan, stalked jellyfish and cuttlefish.
Turning west along the south coast, you reach a small green turf-roofed bird hide where you can observe the great black-backs, fulmars, herring gulls, cormorants, and shags. The seals you’ll spot from here also have names, such as Lucille, Duchess, Snowdrop and Sunrise. Inside the hide there is a helpful identification guide as well as shelves stacked with curiously coloured bottles of medicines used by previous inhabitants.
A hill occupies most of the island and as you ascend there are views of Eddystone Rock lighthouse, 19 kilometres out to sea. Below on the grass slopes and rocks, large numbers of seabirds breed and it can be mayhem in the springtime. From the summit, there are wonderful views across to the deep valleys and hilly coastline of the mainland. Here too, in the shelter of the sycamores, is the islands’ only accommodation – the bell tent. At the summit a few stones mark the site of a Benedictine chapel. Following the legendary visit to Looe by tin-trader Joseph of Arimathea and his nephew, Jesus, the island became a place of pilgrimage for early Christians. Excavations have uncovered a Romano-British wooden chapel, which would at least make the island one of the earliest outposts of Christianity in Britain.
Downhill from the chapel there are views out to the Lizard peninsula beyond, and around Dunker Point the cedars and pine trees add a Mediterranean feel. The route passes through the old potato field before it enters woods of sycamore, elder, oak and ash with dense fern adding a fairytale touch, before the path re-emerges at the Main Beach. If there is time, or if you are staying over, Main Beach is a good swimming spot. Back at the Tractor Shed there is a chance to catch up with the wardens and buy delicious home-made raspberry jam, apple juice and elderflower champagne, along with the books the sisters spent their long winter evenings writing
Getting there:
By boat, the Moonraker. Board from the floating pontoon, near the RNLI lifeboat station slipway in East Looe. There is an island trips information board on Buller’s Quay which is alongside the RNLI slipway close to the junction of Church End and River View in east Looe. The boatman will advertise upcoming trips on this board. You can reserve a place on a trip by signing up in the bookings notebook which is located alongside the board. boatman. Call Dave Butters on 07814 264514 to find out the latest sailing
