Welsh Island heritage project wins top award

Nation.Cymru staff

A project that restored a listed foghorn station and helped safeguard a Victorian cholera hospital on a Welsh island has won a UK award for regeneration and conservation.

The work on Flat Holm, or Ynys Echni, off the coast of Cardiff, took the Regeneration and Conservation prize at the 2026 National Constructing Excellence Awards.

The scheme, called Flat Holm: A Walk Through Time, reached the UK awards after winning two prizes at the Constructing Excellence in Wales Awards. It won the equivalent regeneration and conservation award in Wales and was named building project of the year in the under-£5m category.

As well as restoring the Grade II-listed foghorn station, the team stabilised the former isolation hospital and the island’s Second World War fortifications. The project also improved habitat for the island’s colony of lesser black-backed gulls.

A new trail, information about the island’s history, digital material and public art were introduced as part of the scheme.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Cardiff Council, which owns the island, funded the multimillion-pound project. Cardiff Harbour Authority delivered the work with Knox & Wells, WSP and CMS Group, with in-kind support from organisations including the Flat Holm Society and RSPB Cymru.

Cllr Jennifer Burke, Cardiff Council’s cabinet member for culture, leisure and tourism, said: “Flat Holm is a very special part of Cardiff. Its history, wildlife and location make it unlike anywhere else, but they also make looking after its heritage particularly challenging.

“This award recognises the skill and commitment that has gone into protecting that heritage and helping more people discover the island and its remarkable stories.”

The island lies about five miles off the Cardiff coast in the Bristol Channel and is the southernmost point of Wales. It is a local nature reserve and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Its lighthouse was first built in 1737 to guide ships through the Bristol Channel. The island later formed part of Britain’s coastal defences in the Victorian era and again during the Second World War.

Ynys Echni also has a place in the history of communications. In 1897, it received the first successful wireless signal sent across open water. The cholera hospital dates from the Victorian era, when the island was used to isolate patients.