About the reserve

Teän is one of Scilly's beautiful and unspoilt uninhabited islands. The dune grassland is particularly important for the occurrence of the rare dwarf pansy, which only occurs on Scilly and nowhere else in Great Britain. In 2021, we saw the return of this tiny-yet-beautiful plant after a 17-year absence from the Island (read the story here). There are also species such as four-leaved allseed and balm-leaved figwort. There are also carpets of thrift and sea campion is common. There are also examples of the nationally rare orange bird’s-foot.

The island also supports three species of seabird, with nationally important numbers of great black-backed and internationally important numbers of lesser black-backed gulls, along with several pairs of herring gulls. The central belt of the island is closed during the breeding season to minimise disturbance.

On the summit of Great Hill there is a very small area of lowland heath, but the sides of the tors are now dominated by bracken. Also, if you explore the areas around the old drystone walls, you might find species like red clover, hop trefoil, black knapweed and (rare on Scilly) yellow oat grass and wood small reed. 

The abandonment of grazing on Teän in the mid-1940s has meant that the dune, maritime grassland and the small pockets of heathland have been encroached by bracken and coarse grasses and scrub. The management in recent years has focused on restoring the dune and maritime grassland areas in an attempt to see if dwarf pansy returns to its former sites. This means cutting and raking off the grass during spring and late summer in selected areas to allow other wildflower species such as thrift, common scurvygrass, lady’s bedstraw and changing forget me-not to flower and seed.

As with many of the uninhabited islands, there is a need to balance the needs of nature and for people to enjoy the landscape. We provide circular paths that encourage you to explore, whilst ensuring that visits do not disturb the breeding seabirds. The history of Teän is also protected through the clearance of the old chapel and churchyard to the west of Great Hill, along with several Iron Age entrance graves that grace the summit of Teän.