St Tecla's Isle, Beachley

Tides, mudflats, and the looming presence of two motorway bridges rather limit the pilgrimage potential of this bare rock, once the site of an intense hermit existence

Highlights

• ‍‍Hermit’s Retreat
• Ruined Chapel

The island where St Tecla lived is guarded by the frightening currents of the Bristol Channel. You can stand on a rocky headland and look across the water to the ruin of a later medieval chapel, built to commemorate her hermitage. Only a fragment of wall and an arched window remain.

It is an extreme site even by the standards of the early Celtic hermits. The tidal range here is the highest of anywhere in the world. And the rocky island itself is a small bare rock with nothing to sustain life, which meant crossing to the mainland on a daily basis.

The atmosphere is now entirely dominated by the two Severn Bridges. It is so close to the northern bridge, the M48, you can see the island and ruined chapel on your left as you drive into Wales. This brief glimpse would be a close enough encounter for all but the most dedicated.

A chapel on the rock is first recorded in 1290, when a Benedictine monk visited. Though founded by St Tecla in perhaps the 5th century, the later chapel was dedicated to St Twrog. Records show that it earned an income in the Middle Ages, perhaps from pilgrims, but was in ruins by the 18th century.St Tecla has a more accessible legacy in North Wales, with a holy well at Llandegla (page 467). She presumably headed south in search of solitude. Some speculate she isolated herself on the rock because of leprosy, others that she was murdered here by pirates.Mudflats are exposed at low tide, but it is not safe to explore the island. A boy of eight was drowned here in 2005, a memorial plaque above the shore marking the scene of this tragedy.

Directions

Footpath starts at:‍

The Ferry Inn, Beachley Road, Beachley NP16 7HH

W3W: vivid.enable.apart

GPS: 51.6071N 2.6534W‍

Drive past the Ferry Inn at Beachley and park directly under the motorway bridge. Keep walking down the gated track above the shoreline, and you will come to the end of this headland after 500m. The isle is directly offshore.