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BEAUTIFUL FIGUREHEADS EACH MARK A DISASTER....

Elsewhere on this site you can read of the heroism of islanders who rescued countless souls from some terrible and tragic shipwrecks off Scilly. Tell me more

Too often all that was left behind by the sea was floating wreckage..... among which might be found the carved figure-heads which once graced those brave vessels. Many have been restored and are displayed in the Valhalla Figurehead Museum in the Abbey Gardens on Tresco.

Walking among Ghosts....

It's a favourite moment of mine - after walking through the Technicolor exotica of the Abbey Garden plants - to sit and contemplate the carved faces of these strange figures.

They were placed on the bow of the sailing ships, staring towards the horizon, pieces of art that completed the ship-wright's skill. Today they stare over our heads, looking at a horizon that never changes - unlike the time when they were part of a living thing that is a sailing ship.

How brave, and tragic, they look today.

Perhaps, when all the visitors have gone and the stars come out, they whisper to each other the stories of their life. From when they were carved from a block of living wood, to when they ended up on Scilly - smashed against the cruel granite rocks in a raging sea. And in between, did they sail all the Seven Seas - from the Tropics to the Polar regions. Who remembers today?

Here, on Scilly, the sea is never more than a few metres away. We live by the phases of the Moon, in step with the tides, and even in this Paradise we never forget that the sea can be cruel and that Neptune always demands our respect.

But then, we are an Island Race - like all Britons - and hopefully we shall never forget our heritage or lose our love for the Mother of All Life....... the Sea.

Read about the Special Forces in WW2, and some terrible shipwrecks over the centuries.......

Read about Shipwrecks on Scilly, Heroism in WW2, Druids ....and more!