Private islands & atolls
Denis Island
No ferry runs to Denis, only a plane, five days a week from Mahé. The island covers about 1.4 square kilometres, has around 80 residents in the settlement of St. Denis, and is run essentially as a single resort with 23 chalets.
- Location
- About 60 km north of Mahé, edge of the Seychelles Bank
- Area
- About 1.4 km² (1.8 x 1.3 km)
- Population
- About 80 residents (2014), settlement of St. Denis
- Access
- Air only, 5 flights a week from Mahé, about 30 minutes
Unlike the granitic main islands, Denis is a coral island at the northern edge of the Seychelles Bank, the second northeasternmost in the country's inner island group. French naval officer Denis de Trobriand charted the island in 1773 and gave it his name. A coconut plantation followed, and the old plantation-era settlement still stands, along with a lighthouse built in 1883, rebuilt in 1910, that still stands today, and the ecumenical Chapel St. Denis, described by the resort as the only one of its kind in Seychelles. Vegetation is dominated by coconut palms, Takamaka and Casuarina. In 2004, the organisation Nature Seychelles relocated 47 Seychelles fodies and 58 Seychelles warblers to the island; the resort states that four rare Seychelles endemic land birds are now found together here: the Seychelles fody, Seychelles magpie robin, Seychelles paradise flycatcher and Seychelles warbler. Hawksbill and green turtles nest on the beaches, and the surrounding waters have protected status as a marine spawning and nursery area. The resort states it has rehabilitated over 50 hectares of native woodland and runs a giant tortoise rearing programme through the Green Islands Foundation, an NGO that originated on Denis.
Selected stays
Denis Island
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