Question: What is your favourite land formation in the UK?

George Foden answered on 28 Feb 2023:

I really like Lundy Island, which is a very small island just off the coast of North Devon. I like to go surfing down there and when you’re on the beach in Westward Ho! (which incidentally is the only town in the UK that has an exclamation mark in its name) you can see Lundy Island from there.

It is only 5km long and 1km wide, so it’s very small, but it has a very interesting history and lots of amazing wildlife which you can see if you visit. There are so many interesting bits of wildlife on and around the island, including different marine habitats, unique corals and seaweeds, and lots of seals, that in 2010 it became the first Marine Conservation Zone in the whole UK. The seals are very inquisitive so if you ever go there they will likely come to look at your boat.

I’m mainly interested in its history though, because in the 1500s and 1600s it was controlled by pirates! And then from the 1920s to the 1960s the person who owned it claimed independence from the UK and tried to say that Lundy Island was it’s own country. For such a small island, lots of exciting things have happened there!