Port Edgar, Falkland Islands

This article is about the inlet in the Falkland Islands. For the port in Scotland, see Port Edgar.
Port Edgar
Puerto Edgardo
Port Edgar is just south of the 52° line of latitude, to the south-west of Fox Bay.
Port Edgar
Port Edgar
LocationWest Falkland, Falkland Islands
Coordinates52°0′42″S 60°17′12″W / 52.01167°S 60.28667°W / -52.01167; -60.28667
TypeNatural harbour
Ocean/sea sourcesAtlantic Ocean
Average depth10–17 fathoms (60–102 ft; 18–31 m)
Max. depth18 fathoms (108 ft; 33 m)
References[1]

Port Edgar (Spanish: Puerto Edgardo) is an inlet and safe harbour on West Falkland, the Falkland Islands. The harbour is named after a Royal Navy lieutenant who charted the area between 1786 and 1787. The settlement, also named Port Edgar, is to the south of the harbour and has an airstrip which FIGAS fly to.

History

The harbour is reached through a narrow inlet from Falkland Sound with two spits of land reaching northwards and southwards, which are known as North Head and South Head.[2] The gap between the two heads is just less than 200 yards (180 m) in width.[i] The harbour itself is 7 miles (11 km) long, 1-mile (1.6 km) wide, and about 17 fathoms (102 ft; 31 m) deep.[4] Water from South Lake Sulivan feeds into the harbour from the north. South Lake Sulivan is the largest freshwater lake in the Falkland Islands covering an area of 12.2 square kilometres (4.7 sq mi).[5]

In 1830, HMS Eden took refuge in the harbour due to bad weather on her journey from Cape Horn to Rio de Janeiro. Her captain described the harbour as having either no, or a very low tide, observing a drop and rise of only 3 feet (0.91 m) whilst they were anchored over three days.[1] In 1930, HMS Danae visited the Falklands and was at anchor in Port Edgar.[6] The safe harbour afforded by Port Edgar has also meant that it has been used by whalers to flense their catches.[7]

A settlement at the south of the anchorage is also named Port Edgar. A ridge of quartzite extends from Port Edgar settlement in the south northwards to White Rock Bay, at the north-eastern edge of West Falkland.[8] Several landforms near to Port Edgar were given names after fallen British servicemen during the Falklands War. This was a project commissioned in 2022 as part of the 40th anniversary commemorations where over 250 landforms were identified and named after those who had died in the conflict.[9][10][11]

The settlement of Port Edgar is sheltered from the sea by the Edgar Ridge (to the east), and the settlement is known to be a good location to be based at for fishing (sea trout and mullet), and there is a gentoo penguin colony just to the south-east.[12] A survey conducted in 1999, estimated the colony had over 1,400 nests.[13] To the south of the Port Edgar settlement is Port Edgar airport, located at 52°5′26″S 60°16′57″W / 52.09056°S 60.28250°W / -52.09056; -60.28250 (Port Edgar) at a height of 65 feet (20 m) above sea level. The airport does not have an official ICAO code, but the FIGAS company, list it as FK-0032.[14]

Port Edgar is named after Lieutenant Thomas Edgar of the Royal Navy, who charted the area around Port Edgar in 1786–1787.[15] The Hispanicized version of the name is Puerto Edgardo.[16]

Notes

  1. ^ A book written in 1847 names the two spits of land as Leven and Eden, and states the width of the gap to be 210 fathoms (1,260 ft; 380 m), but only 150 fathoms (900 ft; 270 m) is clear of weed.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Owen, W. F. W. (October 1832). "Port Edgar". The Nautical Magazine. Glasgow: Brown, Son and Ferguson: 397. ISSN 0028-1336. OCLC 8405829.
  2. ^ Annual report on the Falkland Islands and Dependencies 1972-1973. London: HMSO. 1976. p. 72. ISBN 0-11-580172-3. OCLC 1155459666.
  3. ^ Blunt, Edmund; Blunt, George (1847). The American coast pilot: containing directions for the principal harbors [sic], capes and headlands, on the coasts of North and South America. New York: Blunt. p. 565. OCLC 220632859.
  4. ^ The east coast of South America, from Orinoco river to Cape Virgins, including Falkland, South Georgia, Sandwich and South Shetland Islands. Washington: United States.Hydrographic Office. 1894. p. 434. OCLC 15692842.
  5. ^ Wilson, P; Clark, R; Birnie, J; Moore, D (September 2002). "Late Pleistocene and Holocene landscape evolution and environmental change in the Lake Sulivan area, Falkland Islands, South Atlantic". Quaternary Science Reviews. 21 (16–17): 1823. doi:10.1016/S0277-3791(02)00008-2.
  6. ^ "St Helena report for 1930". Colonial Reports (1, 555). London: HMSO: 20. 1931. OCLC 1007512908.
  7. ^ Adie, Susan; Basberg, Bjørn L. (July 2009). "The first Antarctic whaling season of Admiralen (1905–1906): the diary of Alexander Lange". Polar Record. 45 (3): 243–263. doi:10.1017/S0032247408008024.
  8. ^ Greenway, Mary E (1972). "The Geology of the Falkland Islands". British Antarctic Survey Scientific Reports (76). Cambridge: British Antarctic Survey: 5. OCLC 1116305511.
  9. ^ "Falkland Island landmarks named after 238 fallen in 1982". hmsardent.org. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
  10. ^ "Freedom of the Falkland Islands". assembly.gov.fk. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
  11. ^ "Falklands map with the names of British fallen during the 1982 Liberation of the Islands". MercoPress. 26 November 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
  12. ^ Wagstaff, Will (2024). Falkland Islands (3 ed.). Chesham: Bradt Travel Guides Ltd. p. 140. ISBN 9781804692042.
  13. ^ Bingham, M.; Mejias, E. (1999). "Penguins of the Magellan region". Scientia Marina (63). Barcelona: Institut de Ciències del Mar de Barcelona: 487. ISSN 0214-8358. OCLC 909889547.
  14. ^ Köhler, Paul. "Port Edgar Airport (FK-0032)". airportmap.de. Retrieved 29 June 2025.
  15. ^ "The journals of George Grey, 1835–1838: book two". Camden Fifth Series. 69. The Royal Historical Society: 114. July 2025. doi:10.1017/S0960116324000320.
  16. ^ Gionoco, Daniel G. "Secc. geográfica - Equivalencia entre los nombres geográficos en castellano y en inglés, de las Islas Malvinas, Georgias del Sur y Sandwich del Sur". www.aposmalvinas.com.ar. Retrieved 30 June 2025.
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