Grassholm

Template: Infobox Island / Maintenance / height missing

Grass Holm (Welsh Gwales or Ynys Gwales ) is an uninhabited Welsh island located 13 km off the southwest coast of Pembrokeshire and west of the island of Skomer. It is part of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

General

Grass Holm is the most westerly point of Wales and is known mainly because of its large gannet colony. Therefore, the island is since 1947 owned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and is one of the oldest such reserves. This reserve is one of the three main world for gannets, next to St Kilda and the Bass Rock in Scotland. 39,000 pairs of birds breed here, or about 10 % of the world population. The fish-rich waters around the island is populated by harbor porpoises and bottlenose dolphins.

After Grass Holm there is a boat service from St Justinian's Lifeboat Station and Martin 's Haven on the mainland.

On July 15, 1945, the cargo ship " Walter LM Russ" ran in front of Grass Holm aground and sank, nine crew members could be fished up from the lifeboat, the Angle Lifeboat Station.

Mythology

Grass Holm is associated with the mythical island Gwales from the four branches of the Mabinogi. After the "second branch " Branwen ferch Llyr ( " Branwen, the daughter Llŷrs " ), the Welsh, the severed head Bran the Blessed from Ireland return to the homeland, it is for eight or 80 years ( numerology ) kept in a mysterious castle on Gwales. During this time Bran 's main lives on, while his companions celebrate in blissful oblivion. Only then will they bring the main to the mainland, where it is finally buried, and specifically where the White Tower now stands the Tower of London.