Things to do in Bryher

Nestled within the Isles of Scilly, Bryher is a fabulous island with a rugged coastline, secluded beaches, and picturesque seascapes. Bryher’s charm is its strong and independent local community and artisanal businesses, offering delicious local delicacies. For outdoor enthusiasts, Bryher’s network of paths and water activities provide ample opportunities for exploration. Join us as we explore the best things to do on Bryher, uncovering its hidden gems and showcasing the unique character that makes it a cherished destination.

Sample the island produce

The entire island is dotted with honesty stalls selling fresh produce including farm eggs, garden-grown salad and vegetables, strawberries, homemade chutneys and delicious island fudge. Together with freshly baked bread at the Bryher Shop you can fix yourself up with a tasty picnic and finish with the excellent tatty cake, which is only made on this island to a recipe handed down through generations. Island Fish sell freshly caught fish and shellfish daily, crab, lobster, mackerel, ready-made lobster and crab rolls and delicious homemade crab quiche to take away. 

Sampling the islands seafood

Hire a boat and explore the smaller islands

Bennett’s Boatyard and Bryher Boatyard offer boats and kayaks for hire where you can have your own desert island adventure and paddle to Samson or simply explore the tiny islands in the tranquil waters of the Tresco Channel.

www.bennettboatyard.com

www.islesofscillyboathire.com

Hiring a boat to visit the outer islands

A pint in one of Britain’s smallest bars

Fraggle Rock Bar is a destination in itself for many, especially on Fish and Chip Friday, and has been nominated by Jamie Oliver as a ‘best British boozer’. With beautiful views across the Tresco Channel it is a pleasure to sit on one of the outside benches with a local ale and enjoy the views to Hangman Island and to Cromwell’s Castle and King Charles’s Castle on Tresco.

The Crab Shack

A must for seafood lovers this rustic shed, part of the Hell Bay Hotel, it is laid out with wooden benches serving simply prepared Bryher crab, mussels and scallops. You choose a crab and a flavoured butter, put on your apron, and set to with a pair of crab crackers. Prepare to get very messy in this highly social affair.

www.hellbay.co.uk

Low-tide walk from Bryher to Tresco

When sea levels were much lower, Bryher was once joined to Tresco and on very low tides it is still possible to walk across the ocean floor between the two

Walk around the whole island

Bryher’s eight-kilometre coast path is the best way to explore the whole island in a day. The undulating route is easy to follow and ‘climbs’ the three small hills of the island and descends into all of its coves and beaches; there are plenty of great pitstops on the way.

Starting at Church Quay, the old bulb fields and quaint cottages of Old Town lead to the popular Fraggle Rock Bar before heading into the wilds of the moorland of Shipman Head Down and one of the largest Bronze Age burial sites in north-west Europe. From here ancient settlers believed their dead ancestors could keep watch over the living.

Rounding the northern tip, the west coast is dramatic with cliffs and sentinel rocks exposed to the full power of the Atlantic. The aptly named Hell Bay is often a seething mass of white spume and thunderous waves. Heading south the landscape becomes much gentler at Stinking Porth, around the Hell Bay Hotel, with the brackish and calm waters of Great Pool a magnet for migrating birds.

The path climbs again to reach the westerly points of Gweal Hill, Heathy Hill and Droppy Nose Point, a charismatic rock formation and a favourite haul-out site for seals. The dramatic, jagged Norrard Rocks can be seen from both hills.

The south coast then becomes flatter with the sands of Rushy Bay before skirting around the base of Samson Hill, the location for the film based on Why the Whales Came by Michael Morpurgo, after which the route gently returns to Church Quay. Check out the Islandeering blog for more details

The inscription on the stained glass windows in All Saints church

Stained glass windows of All Saints’ Church

Designed by Scilly islander, Oriel Hicks, the beautiful, colourful stained glass windows of this church are best seen from the inside. The scenes of a gig rowing out to save a wreck and the flowers and birdlife of the island are a riot of colour even on a cloudy day.

Swim in Rushy Bay

The best beach and swimming spot on Bryher, Rushy Bay, is a sheltered cove on the south side of the island, opposite Samson. Pristine white sands, private nooks amongst the tall marram grass and very calm, shallow water makes for a great family beach. For the inquisitive there are plenty of shells to find, as well as the rare dwarf pansy. Building chortens with the pebbles on the beach is also a favourite activity with visitors here.

Find the longest cave in Scilly

Just north of Great High Rock, on Bryher’s west coast, is the longest cave in Scilly. Thought to be used by smugglers in times gone by it is hard to find. Its entrance is just one metre wide and nine metres high. This is not a trip for the faint hearted. Scramble down to the base of the cliffs, then over the large boulder protecting the cave entrance and only attempt this during low tide, with minimum westerly swell.

Shipman Head

Shipman Head is separated from Bryher’s northern tip by a narrow channel of water at the bottom of a steep-walled gully. In gentle seas the gully is a thrilling place to jump into or swim for the more experienced. At low tide a large boulder protects the gully’s western end from the breaking waves, creating a bubbling ‘seawater spa’.

The large kelp bed at the eastern end of the gully is also great to explore with a snorkel. Shipman Head itself can be accessed on foot at low tide via the jumble of rocks at the western end of the gully and its high point is readily climbed. As an important seabird colony access is prohibited from April until September. If it is not possible to pass the gully, it is still well worth dropping down to the rock platform on Bryher above it to watch the water surging through.

Swimming the gully at Shipman Head, Bryher