Staines Point is the southern tip of the Trial Islands, which comprise two islets separated by a narrow channel in the Strait of Juan de Fuca about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) offshore from the southern end of Vancouver Island at McNeill Bay, roughly 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south-east of Victoria and 2 miles (3.2 km) south-south-east of Oak Bay, British Columbia. South-eastern Vancouver Island comprises mostly volcanic and sedimentary rocks, and the Trial Islands are mostly mudstone, argillite, graywacke, radiolarian chert, tuff and greenstone associated with the Wrangellia terrane. The point is named after Reverend Robert J. Staines, who arrived at Fort Victoria in 1849 as a pioneer priest and later became a political agitator. In 1854 Staines departed on the Duchess of San Lorenzo, bound for San Francisco, but the vessel sank off Cape Flattery and all aboard were lost. The islands are reputedly named for the 19th-century practice of sending Royal Navy ships from Esquimalt to the islands and back for sea trials after refitting at the Pacific Station.

In 1813 the British Pacific Squadron was established in Valparaíso, Chile, to support British interests in the eastern Pacific Ocean. In 1842 HMS Pandora surveyed the coast of Vancouver Island and found a sheltered anchorage with size and depth suited for Royal Navy use, near a seemingly inexhaustible timber supply for shipbuilding and spar-making. By 1865 Esquimalt was recognised as the Pacific Station’s headquarters. Trial Island Light Station was constructed in 1906 at Staines Point near the highest elevation on the southern island. The station included a diaphone fog alarm and a square two-story keeper’s dwelling with a square lantern room centered on its roof. In 1970 a cylindrical concrete tower with lantern and gallery was built nearby, replacing the original light. It stands 42 feet (13 m) tall with a focal plane of 93 feet (28 m) and flashes green every five seconds. The old lantern room and Fresnel lens were reassembled in downtown Victoria at Bastion Square, where the historic light still flashes but no longer serves as a navigational aid.

In the late 1800s Trial Island was home to John Kergan, a hermit who constructed a crude driftwood shelter. He reputedly had a home-made forge and rip-saw powered by a windmill to make lumber from driftwood. Items he could not make were bought in Victoria during infrequent visits in his home-made boat; he sold paintings to wealthy Vancouver Island residents for money. Today the islands form the Trial Islands Ecological Reserve, a 57-acre (23 ha) area established in 1990 to protect plants and animals on the rocky islands. The reserve represents the northern limit for many plant species; nine plant communities have been described, including the red-listed Garry Oak-California Brome association. The islands also provide roosting sites for birds and haul-out sites for marine mammals, protecting the greatest number of endangered and vulnerable species in a single ecological reserve in British Columbia. Read more here and here. Explore more of Staines Point and Trial Islands here: