Middle Mouse (Welsh: Ynys Badrig - Patrick's island) is an uninhabited island situated 1 kilometre off the north coast of Anglesey. It is notable as the northernmost point of Wales. The island measures a maximum of 207 metres by 110 metres, with a maximum area of 3.7 acres and has a maximum altitude of 16 metres above sea level. It is one of a chain of three islands off the north of Anglesey, the others being West Mouse and East Mouse.
Local legend has it that St Patrick was shipwrecked there, giving rise to its alternative name. He then swam ashore and eventually founded the nearby church of Llanbadrig in about 440 AD, believed to be the oldest Christian site in Wales.
Middle Mouse is a favoured place for cormorants, guillemots and razorbills. For visiting scuba divers the attractions are steep underwater cliffs that drop away to 40 metres with abundant marine life. There is very little protection from the fierce tidal flow, so accurate timing for slack water is required.
The S.S. Liverpool following a collision with a ship named 'Laplata' was shipwrecked near Middle Mouse in 1863. She had on board a shipment of tin ingots.
In 2005, the island was put up for sale as part of a 168-acre (0.68 km2) estate.
Famous quotes containing the words middle and/or mouse:
“During a walk or in a book or in the middle of an embrace, suddenly I awake to a stark amazement at everything. The bare fact of existence paralyzes me... To be alive is so incredible that all I can do is to lie still and merely breathe—like an infant on its back in a cot. It is impossible to be interested in anything in particular while overhead the sun shines or underneath my feet grows a single blade of grass.”
—W.N.P. Barbellion (1889–1919)
“It is as when a migrating army of mice girdles a forest of pines. The chopper fells trees from the same motive that the mouse gnaws them,—to get his living. You tell me that he has a more interesting family than the mouse. That is as it happens.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)