Brownsea Island

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There is an oval shaped island in Poole Bay, i.e. Brownsea Island, which is open between mid March and the end of October. It is accessible by ferry from Poole, Bournemouth, and Swanage.
The entrance of Brownsea Island is southeast harbour and there are several historical buildings used for the National Trust shop, restaurant, St Mary Church, and holiday properties for John Lewis staff. The latter ones were built in the Tudor style in the Victorian time.

Much of the land on Brownsea Island is the pinewood, wetland, and heath land, and it is managed by the National Trust and Dorset Wildlife Trust. These organisations’ staff remove rhododendrons and replace with pine trees and chestnut trees to encourage the growth of red squirrels. The season they appear is between September of and November when there are pine cones appearing. They quietly come out from dense bushes. They tend to stay in the backyard of the church or the dense woodland, and are rather shy, compared to the grey squirrels.

It is an ideal place for having a picnic and walking, and bird-watching. The island with an abundance of nature and wildlife is home to peacocks, Japanese deer, mallards, herons, and oyster-catchers, in addition to red squirrels.

Brownsea Island has had a dramatic history. At visitor centre, there are comprehensive articles, chronological table, and pictures in regard to the fact that: island was used as Henry VIII’s fort in the 16th century, the porcelain factory was established by Col William Waugh in the 19th century and pottery beach remained from the time when countless pots were thrown out as a result of the bankruptcy, and the decoy harbour of Poole was established during the 2nd World War.

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