Hard graft sets new landing stage in place (From Western Telegraph)

Hard graft sets new landing stage in place

Champagne was broken open on Ramsey Island last week to celebrate the completion of the new low-tide landing stage.

The finished quay offers four different landing levels, regular flights of steps between them leading up to a galvanised steel walkway, and safety handrails throughout shaped to follow the rock profile. It is now possible for boats to come alongside on the lowest spring tides allowing the island to embark and disembark visitors and materials over the whole tidal range of seven metres. Derek Rees and Rick Pike, of St Davids, designed the structure and led the team of contractors building it.

It has taken only three months to build the quay, which will serve the island for the next 30 years and beyond. Work began on June 27th chiselling out rock to create the initial form of the landing. Rubble was bagged, shifted by boat and lifted out by crane to strengthen sea-defences in the inner harbour. Mike Miles then joined the main team to construct the shuttering that would hold the concrete; shaping this to the rock profile was itself a work of immense skill. Mike Morris now joined the team for the main concrete building stage. As the tides dropped, work raced against the clock: Each new stage had to be mixed, barrowed and cast in the hour or two before the tide rose again. Finally, the steel walkway, manufactured by Pembrokeshire Engineering, was ferried across and deftly dropped into place by a second visit of the barge Sea Horse.

Not content with a perfect landing stage, Derek and Rick even decided to improve the sea bed. They shifted 25 boulders, some as big as a bull seal by floating them out of the harbour channel to make a smooth passage for boats.

Shaun White, of Thousand Islands Expeditions, who built the original landing steps and boardwalk in 1972 when he was Ramsey warden, was on hand for an official opening last week.

Ramsey Island is owned and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It is a National Nature Reserve and part of the new Pembrokeshire Islands Special Area of Conservation, in recognition of its breeding choughs, coastal heathland, grey seal population and spectacular cliff scenery.

Thousands of Ramsey visitors will benefit from this safer, more versatile landing stage to enjoy Pembrokeshires most spectacular island nature reserve.

There is still time to visit the island this month - it is open every day except Fridays.

Caption: Pictured at the new Ramsey landing stage are (left to right) construction team Derek Rees, Mike Morris and Rick Pike with Shaun White, who opened the new boardwalk.