The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: September fifth, visiting some Scilly Islands.

Though this archipelago of nearly 100 tiny islands off England's southwest tip 28 miles from Land's End may sound like an place dreamed up by Monty Python cast members, its history dates back to the Bronze Age. Its name actually means sunny place of flowers, which is an accurate description.

St. Mary's, at two miles wide, is the largest Scilly island and home to virtually all of the 2,000 or so Scillonians, as well as the port for boats and planes from Britain and to the other islands. Scilly beaches bustle in summer, especially for the Friday-evening gig races, contests among six-oared boats about 30 feet long. Fabulous formations of sea rocks and wild flowers abound. In autumn, bird-watchers alight here to see Scilly's many migratory species. Other St. Mary's attractions include the shipwreck museum in Hugh Town, Old Town, with the ruins of a fort from Henry VIII's reign. Halangy Down is an extensive complex of stone huts that date to 200 A.D. Much older Bants Carn is a third century B.C. stone burial chamber and Iron Age village.

Tresco, Scilly's second largest island, is famous for its Abbey Gardens and Valhalla, a museum with about 50 figureheads and other carvings from shipwrecks. The other inhabited Scilly islands, Bryher, St. Agnes, Samson, and St. Martin's, are most notable for their dramatic views of the sea and rocks. Free of traffic and theme parks, the flower draped Isles of Scilly offer a peaceful haven well off the normal tourist trail

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