The Isles of Scilly (the locals frown upon the phrase “the Scilly Isles” for reasons that I don’t really understand) are an archipelago of 150 islands off of the Cornish coast. St Mary’s, the largest of the islands, is home to Hugh Town, the thriving centre of the Scillies, with an airport and a working harbour and well as half a dozen pubs and hotels and at least twice that many restaurants.

For some reason, I keep spotting the airfield in the news. Directly before we flew to St Mary’s, I checked for details about the airfield and was told that “proposed strike by air traffic controllers at St Mary’s airport has been averted.”

I refrained from referring to the story I’d heard about ATC at Scilly: the on-duty controller was found asleep in a nearby rowboat as there were no flights expected. The airfield’s official history starts with: “September 1937 – August 1939: Golf course used as airfield”.

How could you not love such a place?

Recently, the airfield made it into headlines around the world when they put out an advertisment, in braille, for the position of an Air Traffic Controller. They did, to the relief of everyone involved, confirm that a successful applicant would need to have 20/20 vision. This reminded me that having been to the island, I never wrote about it. I’m ashamed to admit it was the summer before last and I have yet to type up my notes and go through the photographs.

This month, I am not going to get the chance to go to any new islands so I’m out of excuses – it’s time to catch up. So have you got any plans for August? If you think you can keep up with Anne, join us for a tour of the Isles of Scilly!

I’ll be updating every Friday.