From the Living Museum
Bardsey (Afal Enlli)
- Origin
- Bardsey Island (Ynys Enlli), off the tip of the Llŷn Peninsula, North Wales
- Era
- Found 1998 (a medieval origin is claimed but unproven)
- Type / use
- Dessert · Fresh eating
History & Stories
Came to light in 1998, when bird researcher Andy Clarke took fruit from a lone tree on this remote, windswept island to nurseryman Ian Sturrock, and the National Fruit Collection judged it a distinct variety 1,2. The tree grows against the wall of a house built in the 1870s, on an island that was a great medieval pilgrimage site and still has the ruins of a 13th-century abbey 2. A medieval, monastic origin has been suggested, but no one has shown it 1,2. Medium fruit with pleasant aromatic flavor; the tree is notably late-flowering and appears tough in maritime conditions. Unique as a genuine ‘lost’ island variety with strong historical and spiritual resonance — one of the most romantic rediscovery stories in modern pomology.
Folklore & Name
Named for Bardsey Island (Ynys Enlli) off North Wales, where a single old tree growing against a cottage wall came to light in 1998 through Andy Clarke and Ian Sturrock 2. The island was a major Celtic Christian pilgrimage site; the variety carries a strong sense of place, and a hoped-for but unproven link to the medieval monks 1. One of the most romantic modern rediscoveries.
Digging into the History
Below my own notes, here is what the old fruit books and today’s collections record about this apple, kept apart from the stories people tell.
What we know
The Bardsey apple was found on Bardsey Island (Ynys Enlli), off the tip of the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales. The BBC reported in 2003 that the orchardist Ian Sturrock "is credited with making the discovery after a chance conversation on a visit to Bardsey." An ornithologist friend showed him the apples, which he was using to lure birds. Sturrock could not name them either, so the fruit went to the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, Kent, where the apple expert Dr Joan Morgan decided it was a variety of its own 1. "We could not put a name to it," she said, "and who would wish it to be anything other than the Bardsey apple?" 1
At that point only one gnarled old tree survived. The Bardsey Island Trust grew 175 trees from cuttings and sold them all, two of them to the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagans 1. Slow Food lists the Bardsey Island Apple in its Ark of Taste 2.
The competing accounts
- The BBC, 2003 1: credits Ian Sturrock with the find, after an ornithologist friend showed him apples he used as bird bait; repeats claims that the tree may descend from a monks' orchard and be 1,000 years old.
- Slow Food Ark of Taste 2: dates the find to 1998, names the bird researcher as Andy Clarke, and notes that it stands in a nook of an 1870s house that Lord Newborough had built, which suggests someone planted it there on purpose.
Most likely (our judgment, not a certainty): found in 1998 through Andy Clarke and Ian Sturrock, on a tree probably planted beside the 1870s house. The Ark of Taste gives the more specific account, and the house setting argues against the tree itself being medieval. Whether the variety is older than the tree is unknown, and DNA testing, now under way for the trees here, may help.
What we think: stories & traditions
The monks' orchard (theory). Bardsey was a famous medieval pilgrimage island, and the BBC report says the lone tree may have come from "what may have been an orchard belonging to monks who lived on the island from the 13th century" 1. The same article repeats the claim that the variety is 1,000 years old and "the rarest apple in the world" 1. Those are hopeful claims, not established facts. No one has shown that the tree is that old or that the monks planted apples there.
Picture it anyway: a single wind-bent tree beside a cottage on a holy island, still bearing fruit that no one could name. Whatever its age, it is one of the great rediscovery stories of modern apple growing.
Sources
- BBC News, "Island sells out of apple trees" (17 February 2003). news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2773633.stm
- Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, Ark of Taste, "Bardsey Island Apple." www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow-food/bardsey-island-apple/
Curious about Bardsey (Afal Enlli)?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.