Donoussa

Donousa lies 16 kilometres east of Naxos and about 25 north of Amorgos, at the outer edge of the Small Cyclades. It covers under 14 square kilometres, rises to 385 metres, and had 213 residents at the 2021 census. There is no airport and no bridge; everything arrives by boat.

Dionysus and Ariadne

The island's name is usually linked to Dionysus. In the version of the myth that Donousa keeps, the god brought Ariadne here from Naxos and hid her from Theseus. It is a small claim on a large story, and it is the reason the island turns up in ancient sources at all.

What the Excavations Found

People were on Donousa in the Early Cycladic period, around 3000 BC. The site that matters is later: a fortified settlement at Vathy Limenari, on the southeast coast, occupied roughly between 1000 and 700 BC and excavated in stages between 1968 and 1973. Part of the wall came to light along with about a dozen rectangular buildings, most of them two-storey with flat roofs. Fortified settlements of that period are rare in the Cyclades, and the pottery points to trade with the Dodecanese rather than with the islands to the west. The finds are in the Archaeological Museum on Naxos.

Afterwards the record thins out. Rome used the island as a place of exile; later it served as a pirate shelter, then passed from Venetian to Ottoman hands. Shepherds from Amorgos had been bringing flocks across for the summer since the 1700s, and permanent settlement dates from around 1830. Ore was mined here in the early twentieth century until the workings closed in 1938.

Stavros

Stavros, also called Donousa, is the port and the largest of the four villages; the others are Mersini, with springs and plane trees that are unusual for the Cyclades, Kalotaritissa and Charavgi. Whitewashed houses, a few streets and a beach in front of the harbour: the village can be walked end to end in ten minutes. In the evening the tavernas and a couple of bars fill up, but nightlife here means a glass of wine and a conversation that runs late, not clubs.

Anchorages

There is no all-weather anchorage on Donousa, which is worth knowing before committing to it in a blow.

• Stavros bay: 4 to 8 metres over sand, moderate holding, partial shelter from the north. The ferry uses the quay.
• Kedros, on the south coast: 5 to 12 metres over sand with good holding, sheltered from the Meltemi and open to southerlies. A German wreck from the Second World War lies in shallow water off the beach and is easy to make out with a mask.
• The smaller bays around the coast: 6 to 15 metres over mixed ground, settled weather only.

Kedros is also the beach people come for, unorganised, about twenty minutes on foot from Stavros, and Livadi is a similar walk from Mersini. Lying between Naxos and Amorgos, Donousa is one of the anchorages you'll visit on a private gulet cruise in Greece, and for most boats it is the quiet night between two busier ones.

What the island does not have is as relevant as what it does: no resort development, no organised beaches to speak of, limited shops. Provision on Naxos or Amorgos before coming across.