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Prickly Pear Cays

Uninhabited Islands

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ3911374
Source-derived summary

The Prickly Pear Cays, sometimes spelt as Prickley Pear Cays, are a small pair of uninhabited islands about six miles from Road Bay, Anguilla, in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean. They are divided by a narrow boat channel between Prickly Pear East and Prickly Pear West. Prickly Pear Cays were classified as 'wildlands' by the "Eastern Caribbean Natural Area Management Programme" (ECNAMP). In addition, Prickly Pear Cays are one of six marine protected areas of Anguilla.

Geography

Along with Dog, Scrub, Little Scrub, Seal, and Sombrero islets, the Prickly Pear Cays are located on the drowned Anguilla Bank. The cays are characterized by Early Miocene reefal limestone positioned upon Eocene-Oligocene volcanic rocks. These form a section of the active volcanic arc of the Lesser Antilles. The two cays are located close to each other at 18°16′N 63°11′W. They are accessible from Road Bay, Anguilla (6 miles (9.7 km) to its north) and Saint Martin either by catamaran or sail boat. West Cay is longer than East Cay. North Cay, a 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) rock outcrop, is situated north of East Cay.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Prickly Pear Cays” as uninhabited Islands. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 185-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Prickly, Pear and Cays can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as uninhabited Islands. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3911374. Authority coordinates are 18.267, -63.183. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Prickly Pear Cays”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Prickly Pear Cays primary sources, Prickly Pear Cays archive and Prickly research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Prickly Pear Cays”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Prickly Pear Cays” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.