Volunteer Point
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Volunteer Point is a headland on the east coast of East Falkland, in the Falkland Islands, north-northeast of Stanley, and east of Johnson's Harbour and Berkeley Sound. It lies at the end of a narrow peninsula, which protects Volunteer Lagoon. It is named after the ship Volunteer, which visited the islands in 1815. Volunteer Point hosts the islands' largest king penguin colony along its beach.
Volunteer Point is one of the easternmost points of the islands, but Cape Pembroke is the furthest east.[1] It received its name in 1815, after the ship Volunteer visited the Falkland Islands.[2] During the Falklands War, Argentine commanders considered it a potential British landing point because it was far from continental Argentine airbases (e.g. Rio Grande, Comodoro Rivadavia), and those at Pebble Island and as a strategic foothold for any British force wishing to retake Stanley. However, in the event, the British landings took place on San Carlos Water in the west of East Falkland, on Falkland Sound.[1]
Volunteer Point was designated a National Nature Reserve in 1968 and is classified as an Important Bird Area (IBA FK21) by BirdLife International. The area lies within Johnson's Harbour Farm, which is privately owned and locally managed.[3] The landscape is characterized by a 3.2 kilometers (2.0 mi) white sand beach known as Volunteer Beach, bordered by grassy banks and rolling terrain. The headland features hard quartz-sandstone formations, among the oldest sedimentary rocks in the Falkland Islands.[4]
