Keppel Island

Keppel Island holds the ruins of a mission station set up in 1855 by the Patagonian Missionary Society, which brought Yaghan people from Tierra del Fuego to the island to be taught farming and Christianity, an episode that ended badly and closed in 1898. Stone buildings, a chapel and walled gardens survive. The island is now grazed and holds penguin colonies and a large tussac area. Tussac was replanted across parts of the island in recent decades, and the recovery there is one of the better examples in the group.

Background

Keppel Island lies on Keppel Sound north of West Falkland, between Saunders and Pebble islands, and covers 3,626 hectares, rising to 341 metres at Mt. Keppel. A broad, flat valley with several freshwater lakes runs through the middle, rising sharply toward the north, west and south-west, while the north-east is low with a deeply indented shore. Early British settlers named it after Admiral Augustus Keppel. In 1860 Jemmy Button visited the mission, known as Cranmer Station, and Thomas Bridges learned the Yahgan language here before writing a Yámana grammar and dictionary of 30,000 words. Sheep farming began in 1885. Breeding birds include 1250 pairs of gentoo penguins, 780 pairs of southern rockhoppers and 1800 pairs of black-browed albatrosses.

Source: Wikipedia, "Keppel Island"

What you'll find

• The mission ruins - stone buildings and chapel from the 1855 station.
• The walled gardens - the cultivation enclosures the mission built.
• The Yaghan history - the people brought from Tierra del Fuego to the station.
• The tussac - the surviving stands of native grass on the island.

When to go

October to March is the practical window. Access is by arrangement in any season. Winter weather makes boat access unreliable.

Good to know

Access must be arranged privately and there is no regular service. The buildings are unstable and entering them is unwise. There are no facilities on the island.

Nearby

Pebble Island is east, and Saunders is west.

Key facts