Why You Should Visit Caldey Island

There have been monks on Caldey Island for as long as anyone can remember. History tells us that they have been residents on this tiny island off the coast of the United Kingdom near Tenby in South Wales for over 1500 years.

The island was known as Ynys Pyr, the Island of Pyr. It was so named for the first abbot who headed the island monastery in the sixth century. During the Norman invasion in the 10th century, the island took on its present name.

Human remains, flint tools, and long extinct animal bones have been found on the island dating back to 8000BC. Starting in 1113, the island ownership passed though many changes of ownership on its journey though history.

In 1113, King Henry I gave the island to a nobleman of Norman distinction, Robert Fitzmartin, who presented the island as a gift to his mother. In 1136 the island was passed over to an order of Benedictine monks, who had already founded an abbey at St. Donymael near Cardigan.

The monks built a new priory on the site of the sixth century abbot's settlement. This priory remains largely intact today, a testament to its construction. During the new construction, the island stream was channeled and used to power a mill. A watch-tower was built to augment the defenses of the priory, as the seas around Caldey were ripe with pirates and invaders.
IN 1536 Henry VIII decreed that he had had enough of the monks and they were expelled from their island home. Henry then gave the island to John Bradshaw. The island saw many new owners of the next 260 years. It was sold to Walter Philpin in 1577, then to Reeve Williams from the Gower and then in 1653 to Robert Williams of Loughor.

The Earl of Warwick decided to be ownership a go in 1786 for £3000. After 12 years he decided he was through as an island owner and sold the island. The next owner of Caldey would prove to be probably the most dynamic and fortuitous in the island's history.

1798 saw a new start in the history of Caldey Island. The Earl of Warwick had sold the island and its new owner was not a man to sit back and just enjoy the scenery. Thomas Kynaston set up new buildings and economic prosperity for the island.
Kynaston was a very charismatic man who built a lovely mansion house in the priory grounds and added farm buildings to the compound. His more enduring legacy to the island was the building of a new and very large quarry to extract Caldey limestone.

Although there were a number of other quarries on Caldey on the island, this quarry yielded up to 20,000 tons of ore a year, which was exported to capture some of the then booming building and road-making industries. Thomas passed away in 1812 and his son Cabot took over the island.

Cabot Kynaston could have been called a visionary of his time. He believed in moral and just treatment of his employees. He treated the worker and their families fairly and decently and took an interest in making sure their lives were good.

Cabot was often referred to as the 'King of Caldey'. He was what some could call a father figure to the island people, caring deeply about the children of his employee's, making sure they were educated and not allowing a pub to be erected on the island to give the children a safe and loving environment in which to prosper.

Upon Cabot's death in 1866, the island was purchased by James Hawkesley, who carried forth with his predecessor's good works and fair treatment of the workers, and this endeared him to the people, as did Cabot's attitudes before him.

Hawkesley was also a visionary, but on a more scientific approach. He increased the agricultural output of the island and introduced new ways of irrigation and cultivation. He also brought greenhouses and exportation of produce form the island and purchased a ketch to transport the island's yield to waiting consumers on the mainland.

After Hawkesley died, the island was briefly owned by Thomas Cunningham, who did not seem to take an interest in the island, apart from the financial aspect. Three years later he sold it to the Reverend Done Bushnell as a holiday retreat and home for his mentally handicapped son.

Reverend Bushell saw to the renovation of the Old Priory, St. Illtud's and St. Davis's churches on the island. It was in this time the he invited Benjamin Fearnley Carlyle to the island. Carlyle was an Anglican Benedictine monk. He was formally known as Dom Aelred. Rev Bushell invited Dom Aelred to establish a monastery on the island and once more a group of monks were to make their home on Caldey.

Monks have been on Caldey Island for centuries. The current group is part of the Reformed Cistercian order. The order was founded in France by St. Robert, the Abbott of Molesme in 1098. He was the leader of a group of monks who founded a new order at Citeaux near Dijon in the province of Burgundy.

The group felt that influences from the outside world were having a negative impact on the life of monasteries as a whole and they did not wish to succumb to this. Their chosen settlement of Citeaux means Cistercian in Latin and thus the group chose to be known as Cistercians.

A rapid growth for the order took place in the 12th century, when leadership of the order was under St. Bernard, a nobleman who was the Abbott of Clairvaux. Upon his death in 1153, 68 new monasteries had sprung up all over Europe. Two were in Wales, Tintern and Little Triffgarne.

By the 16th century, the order had 13 monasteries in Wales, mostly found in remote areas. The monks were ingenious farmers and agriculture technologists, curators of extensive libraries and keepers of hand-copied and ornate manuscripts. After King Henry VII instigated the suppression of the order and ultimately leading to the Reformation, the monasteries were pillared and plundered of their contents, left for ruin and their occupants scattered.

Over the next few hundred years, reform movements bean to take hold in earnest. But the monks became extreme in their views, sometimes even harsh. This led to a period when the Cistercians became know as Trappists, named for the movement that began at the Abbey of La Trappe in Normandy. Pope Leo XIII later divided the order into the Cistercians of the Common Order and the Reformed Cistercians (who were Trappists) and it is this group the Caldey Island monks belong.
You can visit Caldey Island today by taking a launch from Tenby throughout the summer season. The island has beautiful scenery, a gift shop where you can buy chocolate, shortbreads and perfume all made by the monks. You are invited to celebrate Mass in St Davids Chapel and have a bite to eat in the café or simply to explore the island and watch the abundance of wildlife or the waves crashing in from the Atlantic. Caldey is a unique meeting of the ways of the old with a twist of the new. It is certainly worth a visit!