The settlement provides the logistic base for Weddell Island’s sheep farming and tourist industries. Sea transportation is serviced by a 50-meter pier. The island’s airfield is situated 2.7 kilometres (1.7 mi) north of Weddell Settlement, and has two intersecting unpaved runways (470 metres (1,540 ft) and 400 metres (1,300 ft) long respectively) used by the Falkland Islands Government Air Service (FIGAS) Islander aircraft operating out of Stanley Airport. There are two unpaved earth roads on the island, both leaving Weddell Settlement. One of them, 13 km (8.1 mi) long, runs towards the airfield and further north to Loop Head Shanty and the headland ending up in Loop Head and Swan Point. The other one leads 15 km (9.3 mi) in westerly direction, skirting the head of Chatham Harbour and turning north at Kelp Creek House to reach Chatham House at the southwest corner of the bay.
The tourist and farming infrastructure at Weddell Settlement is currently being renovated; in particular, the Weddell Lodge is being extended to provide additional tourist and workers accommodation during the summer period.[4]
Sheep farmer John Hamilton whose family owned the settlement and the island from 1923 to 1987
Sheep gathering on Weddell Island
The brothers Lewis (pictured) and Stephen Clifton own the island since 2015
Map of Weddell Island
Notes
^The Falkland Islands: Surveyed by Capt. Fitz Roy R.N. and the Officers of H.M. Ship Beagle, 1834. The Inner Bays from Port Harriet to the Eagle Passage are from the Surveys of Lt. Sulivan and W. Robinson R.N., 1838 & 1839. Scale ca. 1:404000 map. London: John Arrowsmith, 1841
B. Stonehouse (ed.). Encyclopedia of Antarctica and the Southern Oceans. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2002. 404 pp. ISBN978-0-471-98665-2
P.P. King and R. Fitzroy. The South America Pilot.Part II. From the Rio de la Plata to the Bay of Panama, including Magellan Strait, the Falkland, and Galapagos Islands. Fifth Edition. London: Printed for the Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, 1860. pp. 116–118
