WAY OUT WEST
Ramsey Island sits just half a mile off the “big toe” of Wales, the most westerly tip of the country that is closer to Wexford in Ireland than it is the Welsh capital of Cardiff. It is separated from the mainland by a reef of rocks and tidal rapids known as The Bitches which stretch out into Ramsey Sound and have been responsible for a number of fatal shipwrecks over the years.
The island boasts an official population of two, yet the huge quantity of Atlantic grey seals and harbour porpoises living in the surrounding waters, not to mention the vast RSPB Nature Reserve contained within, makes this far from a lonely isle.
Photographers, nature lovers and awestruck families regularly make the round-island boat trip, keen to spot guillemots, razorbills and other seabirds nesting here, as well as the lunar-like landscape on the island’s west coast, a breathtaking collection of sea caves and rock gorges. It can seem otherworldly here at times, yet Ramsey Island also provides a full-stop to the end of the Coastal Way, a
