The island's name in Welsh means falcon's Island, according to an 1852 book,[1] but an earlier work of 1811 by Richard Fenton calls it the kite's island.[2]
History
Fenton, in 1811, describes the island, and its neighbour Ynys y Cantwr:
...with high craggy cliffs, producing a thick matted herbage mixed with scurvy-grass and the sea pink, affording pasture for a few sheep, and stocked with rabbits, puffins, elygogs,[note 1] gulls and other sea fowl.[2]
In 1903, the S.S. Graffoe (a 2,996-ton steamship bound from Glasgow to Montevideo with 3,800 tons of coal) struck Ramsey Island and sank at the northern end of Ynys Bery. The wreck lies at a depth of 15 metres, and is one of many Pembrokeshire wrecks popular with divers.[4]
Geography
Ynys Bery's highest point is 71 metres[5] (233 feet), the highest of Wales's islets.
Flora and fauna
Together with neighbouring Ynys Cantwr, Ynys Bery is a breeding ground for lesser black-backed gulls. In the spring the island is covered with pale blue squill.[6]
^Will. Basil Jones (1852). The History and Antiquities of Saint David's: By Will. Basil Jones and Edw. A. Freeman. Vol. 1. Pickering, Parker and Petheram. p. 17.
