Ynysoedd Cymru Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lavender

Wild lavender grows in abundance on Caldey Island, and the Trappist monks use it to make perfume, which they sell in their online shop, along with cards and Abbot's Kitchen brand chocolate. Although the current abbey was built in 1910 by Benedictine brothers, monks from various orders have lived on the island since medieval times. Tourism is also a major source of income for the island; it can be reached by boat from the seaside resort of Tenby, and both the abbey and the island's rich wildlife attract tourists. Red squirrels were introduced to Caldey Island in 2016, and it also has a large colony of cormorants.

Answer: Mumbles

The name 'Mumbles' (or 'Mwmbwls' in Welsh) applies to both the headland and the Swansea district which also includes Oystermouth, and has nothing to do with mumbling; it's thought to be a corruption of the Latin 'Mamucium' or 'mamelles', a French word for 'breasts', due to the shape of the islands.

The lighthouse in the photo is on Mumbles Lighthouse Island, which can be reached via a causeway, and was completed in 1794; it switched to solar power in 1995. Across the sea from the two islands stands Mumbles Pier, a privately-owned pier with a lifeboat slipway. Local students would also enjoy the pub crawl along the seafront known as the 'Mumbles Mile', though sadly, many of the old pubs are now gone.

Answer: Skokholm

Skokholm is thought to have been named by Vikings (hence why it rhymes with Stockholm) and is called Ynys Sgogwm in Welsh. It is part of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, one of Wales' three national parks and the only one in the UK to consist entirely of wild and marine landscape.

In 1933, ornithologist Ronald Lockley founded a bird observatory on Skokholm and continued to live there and study the local seabird population for several years. One-fifth of Europe's storm petrel population lives on the island.

Answer: St Tudwal

While there are Welsh islands named after St Margaret (Ynys Farged) and St Catherine (Ynys Catrin), this question pertains to St Tudwal's Islands (Ynysoedd Tudwal), named for a Breton monk who was considered to be one of the founding saints of Brittany.

He was thought to have lived on the eastern island, which is also home to the ruins of an Augustinian priory. Bear Grylls bought St Tudwal's West for £95,000 and made it his holiday home, while St Tudwal's East was formerly owned by writer Carla Lane of 'Bread' and 'The Liver Birds' fame.

As well as grey seals, the islands are also frequented by bottlenose dolphins, porpoises and otters. (St Briavel is from Elinor M Brent-Dyer's 'Chalet School' books. If you're a fan like me, you might be interested to know that St Briavel's is thought to have been based on either Caldey Island or Skokholm.)

Answer: Its English name comes from the tradition on the island of men never shaving their beards.

The name 'Bardsey' is either thought to mean 'island of the bards' or be named for a Viking chieftain called Barda, but it's got nothing to do with beards! It is also known as the Island of 20,000 Saints, due to its religious heritage: it was a pilgrimage site in medieval times (three pilgrimages to Bardsey were equivalent of one pilgrimage to Rome), persecuted Christians are thought to have taken refuge there, and many saints are said to have been buried there, along with legendary Welsh magician Merlin. Nowadays, it is the end point of the North Wales Pilgrims' Way, a walking route which starts in Holywell and passes various churches dedicated to Celtic saints, and is also popular with birdwatchers; it officially became a nature reserve in 1986.

The island used to elect its own king, with the final King of Bardsey, Love Pritchard, declaring the island neutral in the First World War after being refused military service due to his age. And yes, there is a Bardsey Apple! It's a pinkish colour and was originally found on an apple tree thought to belong to a medieval orchard. Grafting helped the apple to become commercially available.

Answer: Flat Holm and Steep Holm

Flat Holm (Ynys Echni) is the only island of the two that qualifies for the quiz, due to Steep Holm being English, despite not being that far away. Flat Holm is a designated nature reserve, Special Protection Area and Site of Special Scientific Interest due to its rare plants and colonies of gulls, and a breed of slowworm with blue markings. Like Cardigan Island, Flat Holm was popular with smugglers, who used to stash contraband in a small cave there; it also caused a few shipwrecks, such as the William and Mary in 1817, where fifty bodies were found and buried on the island. During the 19th century, it was fortified with batteries to quell any potential French Navy attacks, and was also used as an anti-aircraft gun and radar site in the Second World War. Today, visitors can stay in the island's farmhouse; 'Torchwood' fans might be interested to know that one episode, 'Adrift', was filmed on Flat Holm.

Answer: Barry

The Welsh sitcom 'Gavin and Stacey' has had a few episodes filmed in Barry Island, and there's even a 'Gavin and Stacey'-themed tour of places which have appeared in the series, which ends down at the seafront. Nicknamed 'Barrybados' and named for St Baruc, a Welsh saint, Barry Island is part of the town of Barry and was once home to a Butlins holiday camp, where episodes of classic 'Doctor Who' were filmed; now Barry Island Pleasure Park is its main attraction.

The amusement park went through a revamp where several rides had to be demolished due to a lack of investment, although its Log Flume was rebuilt; it also has dodgems, rollercoasters and a massive ferris wheel. (The hint refers to soul singer Barry White, and Welsh footballer and science teacher Barry Horne.)

Answer: No

While Cardigan Island did have people living on it in the Age of Saints (5th and 6th centuries) - plough furrows and a turf wall thought to be part of a Christian cell have been found there - the resident human population are long gone. It lies in an estuary of the river Teifi, which gives it its Welsh name, and was also nicknamed Smugglers' Island due to its popularity as a site for smugglers to drop off their contraband goods in the 18th century.

In the 19th century, it was used as a grazing area for cattle and sheep. An invasion of rats in 1934 following a shipwreck wiped out the local puffin and shearwater population, preying on their eggs, but the island went on to become a nature reserve nevertheless, and was purchased by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales in 1963.

It has a small colony of grey seals and its bird life includes oystercatchers, razorbills and guillemots.

Answer: Limestone

To be more exact, the limestone that makes up Worm's Head is Carboniferous Limestone, so called because it was deposited during the Carboniferous Period. It is light grey in colour and originally formed in warm waters, and is made up of millions of tiny shells and bones of sea creatures.

It can be found all over Britain in coastal areas. The headland itself consists of three islands known as the Inner Head, the Outer Head and the Middle Head, home to a former sea cave called Devil's Bridge. As a young Dylan Thomas found out the hard way, it can only be accessed via causeway from the mainland for two-and-a-half hours before and after high tide, and there have been other incidents of people being stranded there because of this. 'Worm', incidentally, is a reference to dragons ('wyrm' being another term for a dragon) and not the wiggly kind.

Answer: Menai Bridge

Or, to give it its full name, the Menai Suspension Bridge. The mighty Menai Bridge (Pont Grog y Borth) is one of Thomas Telford's suspension bridge projects, completed in 1826. Its younger sibling, the Britannia Bridge, was built to carry rail traffic across the Menai Strait, which was originally a treacherous route for ferries crossing from the mainland to Anglesey, due to the presence of whirlpools which could sink a boat.

The Menai Bridge was also built to accommodate the increase in traffic to Holyhead, Wales' main port for ferries to and from Dublin, after Ireland joined Great Britain in 1800.

In the event that Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, dies, his funeral plan will be known as Operation Menai Bridge. Anglesey also has a large population of Welsh speakers, and is home to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, the town famous for having a very long name. I myself have been to Anglesey a couple of times, firstly on a family holiday and then for a couple of weekend residentials for a children's choir I was in.