Salt Island

Salt Island takes its name from the ponds on it, which islanders harvested for centuries under an arrangement by which a bag of salt was sent to the British monarch each year as rent. The last permanent residents left in recent decades and the island is now effectively empty, with the ponds, a few ruined buildings and a graveyard holding victims of the Rhone, the mail steamer that sank off the island in the hurricane of 1867.

The main sights

• The salt ponds - the workings the island was named and used for.
• The Rhone graveyard - the burials of those lost in the 1867 wreck.
• The abandoned settlement - the ruined buildings of the former community.
• The salt rent - the bag sent annually to the crown as payment.

When to go

December to May is the calmest for landing. Hurricane season runs June to November. Landing depends on conditions.

What to expect

The island is effectively abandoned with no facilities of any kind. Landing is by dinghy and depends on the sea. Buildings are ruined and unsafe.

Nearby

The Rhone wreck is offshore, and Cooper Island is north.

Key facts