Wednesday morning and an early start as set off at the crack of dawn for a day-trip to Brownsea Island. Being National Trust members we only needed to purchase the ferry crossing.
We walked to Brockenhurst station and caught the train to Poole. When the railways aren’t on strike, this is an easy journey with 2 or 3 trains every hour. Once at Poole the Quay is a short walk from the station and we arrived on Brownsea Island by 11:30am.
Famous for red squirrels, the island’s habitats include heathland, woodland and a lagoon – internationally important for overwintering and summer-nesting birds.
Brownsea Island is the largest of the islands in Poole Harbour in the county of Dorset, England. The island is owned by the National Trust with the northern half managed by the Dorset Wildlife Trust. Much of the island is open to the public and includes areas of woodland and heath with a wide variety of wildlife, together with cliff top views across Poole Harbour and the Isle of Purbeck.
The island was the location of an experimental camp in 1907 that led to the formation of the Scout movement the following year.
From 1 August until 8 August 1907, Robert Baden-Powell held an experimental camp on the island, to test out his Scouting ideas. He gathered 21 boys of mixed social backgrounds (from boys’ schools in the London area and a section of boys from the Poole, Parkstone, Hamworthy, Bournemouth, and Winton Boys’ Brigade units) and held a week-long camp. The boys took part in activities such as camping, observation, woodcraft, chivalry, lifesaving and patriotism. Following the successful camp, Baden-Powell published his first book on the Scouting movement in 1908, Scouting for Boys, and the international Scouting movement grew rapidly.
We have visited Brownsea Island on one other occasion, primarily to see the Red Squirrels but on our previous trip we saw no activity whatsoever. This time we were treated to a wonderful display by these charming little creatures
The Squirrels we saw, were following their same route each time as the moved food stores from one location to another.
After the highlight of our trip we walked around the Island, taking in the lovely views and admiring the wildlife.
