The Isles of Scilly lay 30 miles south-west of Land’s End and display some extraordinary examples of how island biogeography has shaped the species found on these spectacular islands. Anthony Flemming looks at what makes Scilly so special, with fantastic illustrations by Richard Lewington.
Some say that the fabled land of Lyonesse – home to Tristan, lover of Iseult in Arthurian legend – once lay to the west of Cornwall before it sank below the waves, leaving just the Isles of Scilly to pass from myth to modernity. But what were the ecological consequences of this?