The drowned island — flamingos at the salt pond, lobster BBQ on the beach, and 300 historic shipwrecks around the horseshoe reef
Anegada is the only coral island in the British Virgin Islands — a flat limestone and coral atoll rising just 8 metres above sea level, invisible from the sea until you are almost upon it. The name means 'drowned land' in Spanish. The Horseshoe Reef surrounding Anegada is the largest coral atoll in the eastern Caribbean and one of the most historically dangerous — over 300 documented shipwrecks ring the island. The island's reintroduced flamingo population and the nightly lobster BBQ on Setting Point beach are its two defining experiences.
Anegada's Horseshoe Reef was one of the most feared navigational hazards in the 18th-century Caribbean — the island's near-invisibility (no hills, no elevation) combined with the reef's shallow extent caused catastrophic shipping losses. Archaeological work by the BVI government and NOAA has catalogued over 300 identified wrecks including Spanish galleons, British naval vessels, and 19th-century merchant ships. The island was settled by a small community of fishermen and salt-pond workers; the current population of around 300 is largely descended from these original settlers, with generationa…