Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine APRIL 2019 | Page 26

Sombrero Island
This uninhabited island lies about 23 miles north of Anguilla. The large number of birds that
lived here in the 1800s made it important for guano mining, used in the agricultural industry,
and trade abounded. The island was initially owned by the British, then the Americans and it
fi nally passed again to the British and remains theirs today. With ships being wrecked along
that important passage used for trade between Europe and the Caribbean, a lighthouse was
erected on the island in 1868. Although still teeming with birds, guano-mining stopped in the
late 1800s and today, the birds, lizards and other wildlife are the only occupants of Sombrero
Island.
Photo Credit: Anguilla National Trust