THE LONELY FARNE ISLANDS ARE NOW BIRD SANCTUARY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 87, 18 January 1950, Page 5

THE LONELY FARNE ISLANDS ARE NOW BIRD SANCTUARY

Off the northeast coast of England lie the Fames. Those who see these low islands at high tide see 15, those who are there at low tide may find 30. Some are only one and a half miles away from the mainland but others, are five miles out and all must be approached with the greatest circumspection, for it ,is by no means easy to land on their rocky coast. The Fames, isolated ai;d remote, are washed' by fierce gales in winter and in summer covered with a thick cushiony growth of white sea campion and pink thrift.

Uninhabited Now They are uninhabited now, except for the bird watchers who are landed on Brownsman and Inner Fame in May and stay there for three months. If it were not for them egg collectors and other inquisitive persons would surely molest the colonies of seabirds which come to the Fames every year to breed. '

The watchers on Brownsman have the loneliest time for no one is allowed to land on this island, which gives nesting space to thousands of birds, amongst them puffins, kittywakes, eider ducks and the rare roseate terns.

Nothing is’known of the wild and rocky Fames before the'seventh century, and it was/ St. Cuthbert, once a Northumbrian shepherd boy, who made them famous. He retired to Inner Fame in 676 and died there 11 years later. Hermits and monks occupied Iriner Fame for many hundreds of years and a monastic house was founded there in the 13th century.