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We can help you book your perfect break to Tresco. We all live here, so it's our specialist subject!

Call us on +44 (0)1720 422 849 or email us.

By Helicopter - Direct to Tresco

By Helicopter - Direct to Tresco

Fly direct to Tresco with Penzance Helicopters - making the flight to the Isles of Scilly as memorable as the destination

Before you Arrive

Before you Arrive

Our pre-arrival checklist - from letting us know your travel plans to ordering your wine and groceries

Tresco Islandshare

Tresco Islandshare

Own a piece of this unique island, with 40 years of holidays on Tresco as more than just a visitor. Discover Islandshares for sale...

Tresco Offers & Breaks

Tresco Offers & Breaks

From seasonal escapes to wellness and creative breaks and last-minute offers, discover our latest offers & breaks on Tresco Island

Eating

Eating

From beachfront dining to our cosy inn, get a taste for island-inspired dining with a Tresco twist

Grocery

Grocery

Place a pre-arrival grocery order and we'll deliver to your accommodation on your arrival

Events & Experiences

Events & Experiences

From the Low Tide Event to live music, Abbey Garden Theatre and more, discover extraordinary events on the Isles of Scilly

Day Trips to Tresco

Day Trips to Tresco

Whether you're coming from elsewhere on Scilly, or further afield in Devon or Cornwall, a day trip to Tresco is the perfect day out

In praise of the Tresco Bramble…or Bumly Kite or Gaitberry or Thilf

In all the years that I spent as a gardener on Tresco, I never had much of an inclination towards the bramble as a plant.

I have always appreciated the fruit, of course, but I would have chosen never to eat a blackberry again had it meant an end to digging out brambles.

This year, however, I have found myself admiring this former foe. It may be the result of the heavy rainfall earlier in the season but the bramble seems to be looking particularly good this year. At the moment, there is a notable stretch of flowering bramble mixed in with marram grass along the road behind the dunes of Green beach.

My change of attitude towards this plant has caused me to do a little reading on the subject. The bramble may have pretty flowers but it has some splendid names as well. Rubus fruticosus is the official title but the bramble has all sorts of common names such as Country Lawyers (“When once they gets a holt an ye, ye doant easy get shut of ‘em.”), Bumly Kites and Mooches. Let us not forget the Brimmle, Bullbeef, Cock-brumble, Gaitberry, Garten Berry, Lady’s Garters, Thet-thorne, Thevethorn or the humble Thilf.

Scaldberry is another alternative name for the bramble. Apparently in Cornwall the leaves were once used to treat scalds by dipping them nine times in spring water, with the following charm repeated three times:

“There came three angels out of the East,
One brought fire and two brought frost;
Out fire and in frost
In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.”

The Cornish also used the season’s first blackberries to get rid of warts. It is my fervent wish that I will never have the need to try either of these remedies but at least it’s further proof that the bramble has much to offer and to admire.

Stay on Tresco

Winter and Festive breaks are not always available to book online - for cottage stays or New Inn breaks over the winter months please go to Winter on Tresco or call 01720 422849.

Or call +44 (0)1720 422 849