Barry Island

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For the Antarctic island, see Barry Island (Debenham Islands).

Barry Island (Welsh: Ynys y Barri) is a district and peninsula forming part of the town of Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It is named after the 6th century Saint Baruc.

The peninsula was an island until the 1880s when it was linked to the mainland as the town of Barry expanded. This was partly due to the opening of Barry Dock by the Barry Railway Company. Established by David Davies, the docks now link up the gap which used to form Barry Island.

On Barry Docks, the original dock offices are now used by the county council. The dock offices themselves are one of just a handful of buildings in the world classed as calendar buildings. The dock offices has four grand fire places and clocks on its roof, to represent the four seasons, 52 rooms for every week of the year and a grand 365 windows.^{[citation needed]}

There is a railway station still to access the island at Barry Docks, there is also a heritage rail station which houses original refurbished steam passenger trains. The railway is always open to the public and annually holds events involving a large steam engine replica of Thomas the Tank Engine.

The Evolution ride

Barry Island is now known for its beach and Barry Island Pleasure Park. The island used to house a Butlins Holiday camp, this was closed in 1986 and reopened the following year under private ownership as Majestic Barry Island, who later renamed it Barry Island Resort. Between Butlins' closure and Majestic's reopening the camp was used as for filming scenes in the "Shangri-La" holiday camp from the Doctor Who serial Delta and the Bannermen. The camp closed in 1996 due to many reasons, including storm damage and disagreement with the local council, who refused an entertainments licence unless work was carried out to improve the now 30-year-old site. It was redeveloped for housing between 1997–2003 with the remaining two camp buildings and outdoor pool demolished in early 2005.

The island was once again used for location shooting for Doctor Who, in the 2005 series episodes "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances", standing in for a bomb site in 1941 London. The BBC television series Gavin & Stacey, is partly set in Barry.

Barry also has its own castle near Romily Park. The railway station is the home of both the national services of Arriva Trains Wales, as well as the preserved Vale of Glamorgan Railway. In the 1970s and 1980s Barry was home to hundreds of British Rail steam locomotives that were being scrapped. Many were sold to preservation societies, but in the late 1980s most were destroyed.

The island itself has a railway station which serves as one of the termini on the Vale of Glamorgan Line.