White Island Bar Mazes on St Martin’s
49°58'24.1"N ~ 6°17'35.4"W
The White Island Bar Mazes on St Martin’s are the largest concentration of labyrinths on Scilly. Situated on the back of St Martin’s just beside the rocky causeway over to White Island, they mark a threshold place on the islands, which feels appropriately mysterious. As with all the mazes we’re encountered on Scilly, the dates of the white island bar mazes are uncertain, and once again the first mazes here have been attributed to bored serviceman - airman this time - stationed nearby during WWII.
When writing about these St Martin’s mazes in 2018 in The Isles of Scilly Troy Towns, Jeff Saward noted that “in total at least 15 stone mazes and labyrinths, along with initials, names and dates, have been constructed at this location over the years, and the precise number at any one time fluctuates as new examples are constructed, old ones become overgrown and stones are plundered from one to build another.” Now there are far fewer - with only two or three labyrinths still clearly visible, with the shapes of many more just visible under the grass.
This incredible drone footage of the White Island Bar mazes was captured by St Martin's resident James Faulconbridge, who has kindly let us use it on our project website - thank-you James. When viewed from above, the maze field becomes a palimpsest with the ghosts of earlier labyrinths still visible beside the newer ones, but overgrown with grass.
We made a photogrammetry scan of one of the more defined labyrinths at White Island Bar. The shape of this labyrinth is a simple spiral, but the scale is huge! It is one of the biggest we have seen on Scilly. The photogrammetry scan lets us get a bird’s eye view of the labyrinth’s form - like the drone footage does - but it also means we can zoom in close on the details of these lichen covered stones, and see a snail’s eye view of the labyrinth too, understanding more about the texture ad the height of the labyrinth’s stones and the wildflowers sprouting between the well trodden paths.
We plan to update these webpages for the different labyrinths of the islands as our project progresses and we find out more about them. So please if you have any information, stories, ideas, questions or images of any of Scilly’s labyrinths - get in touch with us at scillylabyrinths@gmail.com - we would love to hear from you.