There’’s a really small island just off the coast of Wales, i.e. between Ireland and Wales, the heart of Celtic territory, that grows one of the rarest apple trees in the word. It is calleed Ynys Enlli in Welsh, or Bardsey Island in English. This mile and a half long island has a long history of Celtic Christianity, shown by its wonderful monastery, and obviously has far older connections. icWales has this to say about the discovery of the world’s rarest Apple tree: ONE of the world’s rarest trees has become a must-have for green-fingered Welsh patriots.

Nearly 10 years ago a birdwatcher noticed an apple tree growing beside a house on Bardsey, off the Lln Peninsula, and alerted Welsh orchard expert Ian Sturrock.”One of the world’s leading authorities on apple species, based in Kent, later declared it the rarest apple tree in the world.”Some legends have it that Merlin, from Arthurian myth, is buried here and some that Ynys Enlii is actually the Isle of Glass. The Celtic Otherworld is often thought to lie in the west, and for those living on the mainland a trip to the island to die would be a pilgrimage for many celts, as we are informed by the Bardsey Apple site. Others state confidently that this is the Isle of Avalon (the Island of Apples) that Arthur travels to when he dies. This is a striking coincidence and not far from probability.Fascinating, isn”t it? I wonder how many other links we will find between the earliest myths and later Arthurian derivatives. Good news from the Isle of the Bards.I originally encountered this story from the blog of Jason Pitzl-Waters, pagan podcaster of the Darker Shade of Pagan podcast.

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