The remote pirate island where people still speak one of the oldest forms of English | World | News

When planning a trip to the US, travellers may well have a bucket list that includes visits to the Big Apple, Las Vegas with its casinos or Florida. Many families with young children may opt to head to Orlando and drop in at Walt Disney World.

Those with a passion for jazz most probably will take a trip to New Orleans, while those of us who grew up listening to “the King of Rock and Roll” might try and sneak a visit to Graceland. However, there is one remarkable island that in its golden age provided a haven for Bluebeard and his merry band of pirates.

Ocracoke Island is part of North Carolina’s coastal Outer Banks region, that offers a unique experience for visitors.

Most of the island is within the protected Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which means outstanding natural beauty, pristine beaches with fewer crowds, and an abundance of wildlife.

Everything about the island is local and it is one of the few places in America where there are no hotel chains, no Starbucks, and no McDonalds.

Located 20 miles from the North Carolina mainland, Ocracoke Island is by today’s standards still fairly isolated.

The island is only accessible by boat, as there are no bridges connecting it to the mainland and no commercial flights to it.

Its relative isolation made it the perfect hideout for pirates in the late 1600s and early 1700s.

William Howard was one of those outlaws, serving as quartermaster on Blackbeard’s ship Queen Anne’s Revenge.

Leaving before Blackbeard’s final battle in 1718, Howard made his way to Virginia, and received a general pardon offered to all pirates by King George I.

Howard would return to purchase the island for £105 in 1759, and helped build up a community that earned a living from guiding merchant ships around sandbars in the area.

Perhaps the most unique feature of the island is the local dialect, known as the Hoi Toider brogue, preserved through the centuries by the island’s isolation.

The Hoi Toider is a mix of Elizabethan English, Irish and Scottish accents, and pirate slang.

Visitors often mistake the accent as British or Australian, but with origins dating back to the 1600s, Ocracoke Brogue is “about as American as it gets”, according to the island’s tourism website.

So if you are visiting, don’t be surprised if locals refer to you as “dingbatters” – which in the dialect means “mainlanders”.