BARDSEY

A small island off the north coast of Wales.

Here Merlin is said to lie sleeping in a glass fortress, with the Thirteenth Treasures of the Island of Britain around him. He also has a throne there, on which to place Arthur when he returns. This is held to be the true throne of the Britons.

It has been suggested that Bardsey was the original Avalon. It contained an apple tree orchard, perhaps tended by monks in the Arthurian period. Only one tree remains on which a special kind of apple, known as the Bardsey apple, grows. It is a peculiar sort of apple, with the scent of lemon about it. According to tradition, the island had twenty thousand saints buried on it.