Salt Island
A nearly uninhabited island whose salt ponds were worked for centuries, with the Rhone wreck offshore.
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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.
What you actually see
- 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.
Honest expectations
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.
What to pack for Salt Island
Chosen from what this place is for. Tap a kit for the full checklist.
Opening times, ticket prices and seasonal closures change - check the official source before you go: official site.
